New York during the last Half Century. 



Historical Discourse. 



New York during the last Half Century: 

A DISCOURSE 

IN COMMEMORATION 

OF 

The Fifty-third Anniversary 

OF THE 

^ Tew York Historical Society, 

ANO OF 

THE DEDICATION OF THEIR NEW EDIFICE, 
(November 17, 1857.) 



John W. Fkancis, M. D., LL.D. 







Fastigia Rerum. 




C 










NEW YORK: 






John F. 


Trow, 


Printer and Stereotyper, 


377 


& 379 Broadway, 






CORNER OF WHITE STREET. 








1857. 










Vw.-Wj-"^- ■ 










Enterod. a-cor.liiig to Act of Congress, in tlie your 1857, 

15y SAMUEL W. FKANCIS, 

in the Clerk's Office i>f the l^istrict Court of ttie United States for tlic Southern 
District of New York. 



PREFACE. 



It was coDsidered desirable, on tlie occasion of 
inaugurating tlie new and beautiful edifice erected by 
the liberal contributions of the merchants and profes- 
sional gentlemen of this city, for the permanent depos- 
it of the manuscripts, books, and other property of the 
New York , Historical Society, that the chief elements 
of civil and social development which have marked the 
annals of this metropolis, should be sketched in their 
origin and progress. As this could be most effectually 
done through personal reminiscences, the author of this 
brief historical record was chosen to perform the duty ; 
partly because he is one of the few surviving early 
members of the Institution, and partly on account of the 
intimate relations he has sustained to many prominent 
citizens in all departments of life and vocation. Alive 
to the earnestly expressed wishes of his fellow-mem- 
bers, and cherishing a deep interest in the annals and 



6 

prosperity of his native city, while he found the task 
accordant with his symj^athies, he yet felt that the ab- 
sorbing cares of an arduous profession were essentially 
opposed to the research and finish apjDropriate to such 
an enterprise ; and he therefore craves the indulgence 
of his readers, as he did that of his audience. As de- 
livered, this survey of New York in the past, was un- 
avoidably curtailed ; it is now presented as originally 
written. 

The author cherishes the hope that it may be in 
his power, at a future time, to enlarge the record of lo- 
cal facts and individualities associated with the unpre- 
cedented growth of New York, since and immediately 
preceding the formation of her Historical Society. It 
will be seen that his aim has been to review the condi- 
tion of the site, institutions, and character of our city 
during the last sixty years, and, in a measure, to trace 
their influence on its future prospects : as the com- 
mercial emporium of the Union and the seat of its 
most prosperous Historical Society, we have every 
reason to hope that our new and extensive arrange- 
ments will secure a large accession of valuable ma- 
terials. Yet those members who bear in recollec- 
tion the vast changes which have occurred within the 
period of our existence as an association, need not be 
told that the original landmarks and features of the 



metropolis liave been either greatly modified or entirely 
destroyed ; while carelessness, or the neglect of family 
memorials, renders it extremely difficult to reproduce, 
with vital interest, even the illustrious persons who 
have contributed most effectually to our prosperity and 
: renown. 

If the author succeeds, by means of the present 
brief sketch or a future more elaborate memoir, in 
awakening attention to the men and events which 
have secured the rapid development of resources on 
this island, both economical and social, he will rejoice. 
Such a task, rightly performed, should kindle anew our 
sense of pei^sonal res|)ousibility as citizens, of gratitude 
as patriots, and of wise sympathy as scholars. Even 
this inadequate tribute he has regarded as an historical 
duty, and felt it to be a labor of love. 

J. W. F. 

New Yo]{k, Novcmler 17, 1857. 



At a meeting of the NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, held at 
the Library, on Tuesday evening, Novemher 17, 1857, to eelelrate the 
Fifty-Tldrd Anniversary of the founding of the Society. 

Dr. John W. Francis delivered its Anniversary Address, entitled, " Is'ew 
York During the Last Half Century." 

Ou its conclusion the Rev. Francis L. Hawks, D. D., after some remarks , 
submitted the following resolution : 

Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be presented to Dr. Francis for 
his highly interesting address, and that a copy be requested for publication. 

The resolution was seconded by Charles King, LL.D., and was then unani- 
mously adopted. 

Extract from the minutes. 

ANDREW WARNER, 

Recordivff Secretary/. 



ERRATA. 

Page 107, line 29th, for 1787, read 1789. 

Page 212, line 10th, for Rogers, read Moore. 

Page 232, line 18th, for Oldest, read One of the oldest living members. 



DISCOURSE. 

Ho^S^OEED PeESIDEI^T AND ASSOCIATES OF THE NeW 
YOEK HiSTOEICAL SoCIETY : 

What a contrast ! This meeting of the New York 
Historical Society and that which was held now some 
fifty years ago. Ponder a while upon the circum- 
stances which mark this difference. At the period at 
which our first organization took place, this city con- 
tained about sixty thousand inhabitants ; at present 
it embraces some seven hundred and fifty thousand 
inhabitants. A large majority of the residents 
dwelt below Courtland street and Maiden Lane. A 
sparse population then occupied that portion of the 
island which lies above the site of the New York Hos- 
pital on Broadway ; and the grounds now covered with 
the magnificent edifices which ornament Uj^per Broad- 
way, the Fifth Avenue, Fourteenth Street, Union 
Place, and Madison Square, were graced with the syca- 
more, the elm, the oak, the chestnut, the wild cherry, 
the peach, the pear, and the plum tree, and further 
ornamented with gardens appropriated to horticultural 
products, with here and there the artichoke, the tulip, 
and the sun-flower. Where now stands our Astor 
Library, the New York Medical College, the Academy 
of Music, Cooper's Institute, and the Bible Society 



10 

House, the old gardens of our Dutcli ancestors were 
most abundant, cultivated with something of the artis- 
tic regularity of the Hollanders, luxuriating in the 
sweet marjoram, the mint, the thyme, the currant, and 
the gooseberry. The banks of our majestic rivers on 
either side presented deep and abrupt declivities, and 
the waters adjacent were devoted to the safety of 
floating timber, brought down from the Mohawk, on 
the Hudson River, or elsewhere obtained, on the Con- 
necticut, in mighty rafts, destined for naval architec- 
ture and house-building. Our avenues, and squares, 
and leading roads were not yet laid out by Morris, and 
Clinton, and Rutherford, and our street regulations in 
paving and sidewalks, even in those passes or highways 
now most populous, had reached but little above the 
Park, and in the Bowery only within the precincts of 
Bayard street. The present City Hall was in a state 
of erection, and so circumscribed, at that time, was the 
idea of the City's progress, that the Common Council, 
by a slender majority, after serious discussion, for 
economy's sake, decided that the postern part of the 
Hall should be composed of red-stone, inasmuch as it 
was not likely to attract much notice from the scattered 
inhabitants who might reside above Chambers street. 

Some fifty years ago the most conspicuous of the 
residences of our prominent citizens wei'e the Govern- 
ment House at the Bowling Green, the Kennedy 
House, now converted into the Washington Hotel, 
No. 1 Broadway, an object of singular interest. During 
the Revolution it was occupied by Howe and Clinton. 
Here Andre commenced his correspondence with Ar- 
nold ; and here John Pintard held an interesting con- 
versation with Andre on their respective claims to 



11 

Huguenot blood. Captaiu Peter Warren, who erected 
this famous building, was afterwards knighted, and 
became a Member of Parliament. The house was Ions: 
occupied by Kennedy, afterwards Earl of Cassilis, and 
again by Sir Henry Clinton ; afterwards it was long 
held by Nathaniel Prime, of the banking house of 
Prime & Ward. We next, in those earlier days, 
observe the stone dwelling, situated at the lower part 
of Broadway, once occupied by Governor Jay ; the 
mansion of Governor George Clinton, of revolutionary 
renown, situated near the North Kiver, at the termi- 
nation of Thirteenth street, Colonel Rutgers' somewhat 
sequestered retreat, near the head of Cherry street, 
where Franklin sometimes took a patriotic meal ; the 
Hero of Fort Stanwix, Colonel Willett's humble cottage 
in the vicinity ; General Gates' ample establishment 
higher up near Twenty-fourth street, overlooking the 
banks of the East River, where Baron Steuben, Colonel 
Burr, and many other actors of the War, participated 
in the festivities so amply provided by the guest, with 
song and sentiment. The famous Club of the Belvi- 
dere, on the banks of the East River, is also entitled 
to commemoration : at its head was Atchisen : here 
royalty and democracy had their alternate revelries, 
with blessings on the king or laudations of the rights 
of man. Still standing, in pride of early state, we 
notice the Beekman House, near Fiftieth street, also 
near the East River banks, where British Officers 
rendezvoused, in revolutionary times ; where Sir Wil- 
liam Howe kept those vigils commemorated in the 
Battle of the Kegs, and where Andre passed his last 
night previous to entering on his disastrous mission. 
Adjacent the Beekman House recently stood the ample 



12 

Green House, where Xathaii Hale, called tue spy, was 
examiDed by Lord Howe. 

Eminently conspicuous in former days was tlie 
Mansion, located on Richmond Hill, near Lispenard's 
Meadows, at the junction of Varick and Van Dam 
streets, then an elevated and commanding sight. So 
many now before me must retain a strong recollection 
of this spot, which afterwards became thie Theatre of 
the IMontressor Opera Company, that I am compelled 
to dwell a moment longer concerning it. This imposing 
edifice was built about 17T0, by Mortier, a paymaster 
of the British government. It was surrounded by 
many and beautiful forest trees; it was often subjected 
to the annoyances of the sportsmen, and Mr. Van 
Wagenen, a direct descendant of Garret Van Wagenen, 
almost the first and earliest of our city schoolmasters, 
a true-son of St. Nicholas, still honoring us in liis life and 
in his devotion to New York, could give you a curious 
account of the enjoyments of the field on these premises 
in those early days. While Congress sat in this city, 
this celebrated mansion was occupied by the elder 
Adams, and some of the most charming letters of the 
Vice President's wife are dated at this place. It sub- 
sequently became the residence of Aaron Burr, into 
whose possession it fell, by purchase from the executors 
of Abraham Mortier; in 1804 it became by purchase 
the property of John Jacob Astor. While Burr re- 
sided there, its halls occasionally resounded with the 
merriment which generous cheer inspires ; yet at 
other times, and more frequently, philosophy here sat 
enthroned amidst her worshippers. Here Talleyrand, 
who in the morning had discoursed on the tariff wdth 
Hamilton, passed perhaps the afternoon of tlie same 



13 

day witli Burr, on the subject of the fur trade and 
commerce with Great Britain, associated with Volney, 
whose portly form gave outward tokens of his tremen- 
dous gastric powers, while the Syrian traveller, in his 
turn, descanted on theogony, the races of the red men, 
and Niagara. I cannot well conceive of a greater 
intellectual trio. Perhaps it was at one of those con- 
vivial entertainments that the dietetic sentiment origi- 
nated, in relation to some of the social pecuharities 
among us, that our Republic, while she could boast of 
some two hundred varieties of religious creeds, possessed 
only one variety of gravy. 

Here it may be recorded lived Burr, at the time of 
the fatal duel with Hamilton : informed by his saga- 
cious second, Van Ness, that the General was wounded, 
Burr remarked, " O, the little fellow only feigns hurt," 
but catchins: an idea of the nature of the wound, from 
Hamilton's action, he hastily left the field, and fied for 
shelter from the wrath of an indignant ])eople, while 
rumor spread that the constituted authorities were in 
search of him. It was believed by the populace that 
he had passed through New Jersey towards the South, 
yet on the very afternoon of that fatal day, while the 
whole city was in consternation, and on the look-out, 
he had already reached his domicile on Richmond Hil], 
and was luxuriating in his wonted bath, with Rous- 
seau's Confessions in his hands, for his mental suste- 
nance. 

But I proceed with these hasty notices of our city 
in these earlier times, about the period when the 
organization and establishment of the Historial Society 
were contemplated, and about to be incorporated by 
legislative wisdom. 



14 

Our City Library was now in possession of its new 
structure in Nassau street, and justly l3oastecl of its rare 
and valuable treasures, its local documents of impor- 
tance, and its learned librarian, Jolni Forbes. Kent's 
Hotel, on Broad street, was the great rendezvous for 
heroic discussions on law and government, and for politi- 
cal and other meetings ; and here the great Hamilton 
was at times the oracle of the evening. The City 
Hotel, near old Trinity, was the chosen place for the 
Graces ; here Terpsichore presided, with her smiling 
countenance, and Euterpe first patronized Italian music 
in this countr}', under the accomplished discipline of 
Trazzata. This long known and ample hall is not to 
be forgotten as the first building in this city, if not in 
this country, in which slate was used as a roof-covering, 
thus supplanting the old Dutch tile of the Hollanders, 
in use from the beginning of their dynasty among us. 

Our museums were limited to the one kept by old 
Gardener Baker, himself and his collection, a sort of 
curiosity shop, composed of heterogeneous fragments 
of the several kingdoms of nature. Hither childish 
itrnorauce was sometimes lost in wonder, and here too 
was the philosopher occasionally enlightened. Scudder 
did not lay the foundation of his patriotic enterprise 
until five years after our incorporation, and although 
his beginning was but an humble demonstration, he 
astounded the natives with his vast tortoise, and Alex- 
ander Wilson, the ornithologist, gave him cheering 
counsel, and enkindled his zeal. Our famous Vauxhall 
Garden of these earlier days, occupied the wide do- 
main of the Bayards, situated on the left of our then 
Bunker Hill, near Bullock, now Broome street, and 
here the Osage Indians, amidst fireworks of dazzling 



15 

efficacy (for we had not the use of calium nor strontium 
in these artistic displays in those days), yelled the war- 
whoop and danced the war-dance, while our learned Dr. 
Mitchill, often present on these occasions, translated 
their songs for the advancement of Indian literature, 
and enriched the journals with ethnological science con- 
cerning our primitive inhabitants. 

The Indian Queen and Tyler's were gardens of much 
resort, situated towards the Greenwich side of our city : 
at the former military evolutions were often displayed 
to the satisfaction of the famous French general, 
Moreau, with General Stevens and Morton among the 
staff as official inspectors, while Tyler's is still held in 
remembrance, by some few surviving graduates of 
Columbia College, as the resort for commencement 
suppers. I shall advert to only one other site, which, 
though in days gone by not a public garden, was 
a place much frecpiented. On the old road towards 
Kingsbridge, on the eastern side of the island, was the 
well-known Kip's Farm, pre-eminently distinguished 
for its grateful fruits, the plum, the peach, the pear, and 
the apple, and for its choice culture of the rosacece. 
Here the elite often repaired as did good old Dr. John- 
son and Boswell for recreation at Eanelagh ; and here 
our Washington, now invested with presidential honors, 
made an excursion, and was presented with the Rosa 
Gallica, an exotic first introduced into this country in 
this garden ; fit eml^lem of that memorable union of 
France and the American colonies in the cause of 
republican freedom. These three gardens were Yi- 
mous for their exquisite fruit, the plum, and the peach : 
ecjually as are Newtown and Blackwell Island for the 
apple, known to all horticulturists, abroad and at home. 



16 

as the Newtown pippin. Sncli things were. No traces 
are now to be found of the scenes of those once grati- 
fying sights ; the havoc of progressive improvement has 
left nought of these once fertile gardens of Dutch regu- 
larit}^, save the old pear tree of the farm of the redoubt- 
able Peter Stuveysant, well known as still flourishing in 
foliage and in fruit, in its 220th year, at the corner of 
Thirteenth street and Third Avenue. If tradition be 
true, the biographer of this venerable tree, in his account, 
in the London Horticultural Transactions, ought not to 
have omitted the curious fact, that of its importation 
from Southern Europe, and of its having once occupied 
the old fort held by Stuyvesant and delineated by Van- 
der Donck. If all this be authentic, the old pear tree 
enhances our admiration as the last livinc: thin<2: in ex- 
isteuce since the time of the Dutch Dynasty. 

Order demands that our first notice of the most 
strikino" of our ornamental m'ounds should be an account 
of the Battery, and its historical associate, White Hall. 
Few, perhaps, are well informed of the origin of that 
well recorded name, and long-lived historical location. 
John Moore, the last on the list of the members of the 
" Social Club," died in New York in 1828, in his 84th 
year. He was a grandson of Colonel John Moore, 
who was an eminent merchant of this city, and one of 
the Aldermen, when it was a great distinction to pos- 
sess that honor : he was also a member of his Majes- 
ty's Provincial Council at the time of his death, in 17-19. 
The Colonel resided at the corner of Moore (so called 
after his demise by the corporation) and Front streets, 
in the largest and most costly house in this city at that 
time, and called "White liall" from its color, and 
which o'ave the name afterwards to the neisrhborino: 



IT 

street. It is scarcely necessary to add, that this great 
edifice was destroyed by the fire which laid waste 
the city iu September, 1776, three days after the 
British obtained j^ossession of it. Of the Bay and 
harbor, and of the Battery itself, I need say nothing 
after the successful description of Mrs. TroUope, and 
many other writers. The first time I entered that 
charming place, was on the occasion of the funeral of 
General Washington. The procession gathered there, 
and about the Bowling Green : the Battery was pro- 
fusely set out with the Lombardy poplar trees : indeed 
in 1800-4 and '5 they infested the whole island, if 
not most of the middle, northern, and many southern 
States. Their introduction was curious. The elder 
Michaux, under the direction of Louis XVI., had been 
sent to America, from the Garden of Plants of Paris : 
he brought out with him the gardener, Paul Saunier, 
who possessed, shortly after, horticultural grounds of 
some extent in New Jersey. The Lombardy tree prom- 
ised everything good, and Paul spread it. It was pro- 
nounced an exotic of priceless value ; but like many 
things of an exotic nature, it polluted the soil, vitiated 
our own more stately and valuable indigenous products : 
and at length we find that American sagacity has pro- 
scribed its growth, and is daily eradicating it as uncon- 
genial and detrimental to the native riches of Amer- 
ican husbandry. 

In glancing at other beautiful plots, if I am control- 
led by the definition of the dictionary, I must omit 
special mention of that once famous spot of ground 
called the Park, situated in front of our City Hall, inas- 
much as artistic taste and corporation sacrilege caused 
the cutting down of the more conspicuous and beautiful 



18 

trees, the sycamores, the maple, the walnut, and tlie 
Babylonian willows of the growth of ages, which consti- 
tuted its woodland, in order to favor the populace with 
an improved view of the architectural front of our then 
recently erected marble edifice. In its actual condition 
(lucus non lucendo) it were too latitudinarian to speak 
of the Old Commons as a park, at the present day. Yet 
the Liberty Boys have perpetuated it in our early his- 
tory, and Clinton's Canal has given it a modern glorifi- 
cation, by the far-famed meeting of the tens of thousands 
at which the venerable Colonel Few presided, to enter 
their protest against legislative proscription in 1824. 

At the period to which our associations are mainly 
confined, Washington square, which a wise forethought 
of our city fathers some time since converted into an 
eligible park, was not then contemplated. It is known 
to you all to have been our Golgotha during the 
dreadful visitations of the Yellow Fever in 179*7, 1798, 
1801, and 1803, and many a victim of the pestilence of 
prominent celebrity, was consigned to that final resting- 
place on earth, regardless of his massive gains, or his 
public services. I shall only specify one individual 
whose humble tombstone was the last of the sepul- 
chral ornaments removed thence : I allude to Doctor 
Benjamin Perkins, the inventor of the metallic tractors, 
a charlatan, whose mesmeric delusions, like clairvoyance 
in these our own days, had something of a popular re- 
cognition, and whose confidence and temerity in the 
treatment of his case, yellow fever, by his own specific, 
terminated in his death, after three days' illness. St. 
John's Park, now richly entitled to that designation 
from the philosophy of the vegetable economy which 
was evinced at its laying-out, in the selection, associa- 



19 

tion, and distribution of its trees, by the late Louis 
Simoud, the distinguished traveller, (for the vegetable 
as well as the animal kingdom has its adjuvants, its loves, 
and its hatreds,) had no existence at the time to which 
we more directly refer, the period of our incorporation. 
If a botanical inquirer should investigate the variety 
of trees which flourish in the St. John's Park, he would 
most likely find a greater number than on any other 
ground, of equal size, in the known world. If what 
everybody says be true, then is Samuel B. Ruggles en- 
titled to the meed of approbation from every inhabi- 
tant of this metropolis, for the advantageous disposition 
of the Union Place Park, and its adjacent neighborhood. 
It was the lot of this enterprising citizen to manifest 
an enlarged forecast during his public career in muni- 
cipal, equally effective as he had evinced in State affairs. 
The equestrian statue of Washington, executed with 
artistic ability by Brown, and erected in this square 
through the patriotic efforts of Col. Lee, aided by our 
liberal merchants, adds grace to the beauty of that 
open thoroughfare of the city. There is a story on this 
subject, which, I hope, will find embodiment in some 
future edition of Joe Miller. Col. Lee had assiduously 
collected a subscription for this successful statue ; among 
others, towards the close of his labors, he honored an 
affluent citizen of the neighborhood, by an application 
for aid in the goodly design. " There is no need of the 
statue," exclaimed the votary of wealth : " Washington 
needs no statue ; he lives in the hearts of his country- 
men ; that is his statue." " Ah ! indeed," replied the 
colonel, " does he live in yours ? " " Truly, he does," was 
the reply. "Then," added the colonel, "I am sorry, 
very sorry, that he occupies so mean a tenement." 



20 

I trust I am not vulnerable to the charge of diverg- 
ing too far from an even path, into every field that may 
skirt the road, if while on the subject of Gardens and 
Parks, I commemorate one other of superior claims to 
consideration, and which at the time we have so often 
alluded to, had arrived to a degree of importance which 
might almost be called national; I mean the Elgin 
Botanic Garden, founded by the late Dr. David Ilosack, 
in 1801, and at the period of our incorporation, justly 
pronounced an object of deep interest to the cultiva- 
tors of natui-al knowledge, and to the curious in vege- 
table science. Those twenty acres of culture, more or 
less, were a triumph of individual zeal, ambition, and 
liberality, of which our citizens had reason to be proud, 
w^hether they deemed the garden as conservative of our 
indigenous botany, or as a repository of the most 
precious exotics. The eminent projector of this distin- 
guished garden, with a princely munificence, had made 
these grounds a resort for the admirers of nature's vege- 
table wonders, and for the students of her mysteries. 
Here were associated, in appropriate soil, exposed to the 
native elements, or protected by the conservatory and 
the hot-house, examples of vegetable life, and of variety 
of development — a collection that might have captivated 
a Linnaeus, or a Jussieu ; and here, indeed, a Michaux, 
and a Barton, a Mitchill, a Doughty, a Pursh, a Wil- 
son, or a Leconte, often repaired to solve the doubts of 
the cryptogamist, or to confirm the nuptial theory of 
Vaillant.^"" 

* Several of these distint^nislied disciples of the school of Avisdom 
have already found judicious hiographers, who have recorded their services 
in the fields of natural knowledge. We still want the pen to describe the 
labors of Pursh, the author of tiie Flora Auiericae Septentrionalis. llis 



21 

Here tlie learned Hosack, then Professor of Botany 
in Columbia College, gave illustrations to bis medical 
class, and to many not exactly within the circle of 
professional life, of the natural and artificial systems of 
nature. 1 shall never forget those earlier days of my 
juvenile studies, when the loves and habits of plants 
and of trees were first expounded by that lucid in- 
structor, and with what increased delight the treasures 
of the Jardin des Plantes of Paris, just arrived, through 
the kindness of Monsieur Thouin, were added to the 

adventurous spirit, his hazardous daring, and his indomitable energy, pre- 
sent an example of what a devotee in an attached calling will encounter. 
He was for several years the curator of the Elgin Botanic Garden, and 
widely travelled through the United States. Lambert, the author of the 
"Amerioan Pines," afforded him great aid in the production of his volumes, 
and cherished, as I personally know, great regard for the benefits Pursh 
had conferred on American botany. Michaux has been more fortunate. 
The biographical memoir of this most eminent man, recently given to the 
public in the " Transactions of the American Philosophical Society," by 
Elias Dueand, of Philadelphia, himself a lover of botanical science, is 
a most grateful tribute to the character and merits of this intrepid explorer 
of the American soil. Michaux was the only child of Andre Michaux, 
rendered no less famous by his " Oaks of North America," and by his 
" Flora," than the son by his " Forest Trees." Young Michaux, nnder 
parental guidance, was early initiated into the cultivation of botanical 
pursuits ; the story of his life, as given us by Mr. Durand, enhances our 
esteem of his heroic labors, and posterity mnst ever thank this enlightened 
biographer for the exposition he has made of the contributions to physical 
knowledge, and especially to arboriculture, which the instrumentality of 
Micliaux has effected. He lived a long life, notwithstanding his innumer- 
able perils, dying so late as in October, 1855, at the age of S5 years. 
Every American who visits the Garden of Plants of Paris, must be 
struck Avith the number and the richness of the American Forest Trees 
which flourish therein ; they furnish but one of many examples of the 
practical zeal and services of the Michauxs, father and son. It is to be 
lioped that, ere long, some competent botanist will favor us with an 
account of the amiable Douglass, whose tragical end is still involved in 
obscurity. "We know little of him save that our botanical catalogue is 
enriched with the " Pinus Douglasii." Greater merits, and more modesty, 
were never blended in one individual. 



09, 



great collection of exotics in this New York Garden. 
It was a general rule with that able instructor to ter- 
minate his spring course by a strawberry festival. 
" I must let the class see," said the teacher, " that we are 
practical as well as theoretical : the fragaria is a most 
appropriate aliment : Linnaeus cured his gout and pro- 
tracted his life by strawberries." " They are a dear ar- 
ticle," I observed, " to gratify the appetite of so many." 
" Yes, indeed," he rejoined, " but in due time, from our 
present method of culture, they will l^ecome abundant 
and cheap. The disciples of the illustrious Swede must 
have a foretaste of them, if they cost me a dollar a 
piece." 

Had Dr. Hosack done no more by his effoi'ts at 
the Elgin Garden, than awaken increased desires in 
the breast of his pupil Torrey for natural knowledge, 
he might be acknowledged a public benefactor, from 
the subsequent brilliant career which that eminent 
naturalist, with Professor Gray, has pursued in the vast 
domain of botanical inquiry. But I am happy to add, 
with that social imj)ulse which seems to be implanted 
in the breast of every student of nature, which the 
frosts of eighty-eight winters had not chilled in An- 
toine Jusseau, and which glowed with equal benignity 
in the bosom of the intrepid Ledyard, on Afric's sandy 
plains, and in the very heart of the adventurous 
Kane amidst the icy poles, Hosack is not forgotten. 
Willdenow tells us, that the crowning glory of the 
botanist is to be designated by some plant bearing his 
name. Since the death of Dr. Hosack, the botanical 
nomenclature enrols no less than sixteen species of 
plants of different regions under the genus HosacMa. 
Time and circumstances have wrought great changes 
in this once celebrated place, the Elgin Garden. 



9?. 



Columbia College, that venerable and venerated 
seat of classical learning, was justly proud of her healthy 
and beautiful locality, laved almost up to the borders 
of her foundation by the flowing streams of the Hud- 
son, and ornamented by those majestic sycamores 
planted by the Crugers, the Hurrays, and the Jays, 
fifty years before our incorporation, but which city 
progress has recently so agonizingly rooted out. Well 
mio-ht Cowen, in his Tractate on Education, have ex- 
tolled this once delectable spot as an appropriate seat 
for intellectual culture in the New World. 

As a graduate for nearly half a century, an over- 
weening difiidence must not withhold from me the 
trespass of a moment concerning my Alma Mater. The 
faculty, when I entered within its walls, was the same 
as occupied them when our Historical Society was 
organized, and on a former occasion, at one of your 
anniversaries, I bore testimony to the cordial support 
which that body gave to our institution at its inception. 
The benignant Bishop Moore was its president; Dr. 
Kemp, a strong mathematician, ably filled several de- 
partments of science ; impulsive and domineering in 
his nature, there w^ere moments with him when a latent 
benevolence towards the student quickened itself, and 
he may be pronounced to have been an eftective teach- 
er. It has been promulgated that he gave early hints 
of the practicability of the formation of the Erie Canal. 
I have never seen satisfactory proofs of such fore- 
thought in any of his disquisitions. He died shortly 
after that great measure was agitated : he might have 
conversed on the subject with Clinton, Morris, Eddy, 
Colles and Fulton. Yet I think I might, with perhaps 
equal propriety, because I had an interview with old 



24 

Willicam Herschel, fancy myself a discoverer of the 
nature of the milky way. Kemp was clever in his 
assigned duties, but had little ambition to tract beyond 
it. He was devoid of genius and lacked enterprise. 

Dr. Bowden, as the Professor of Moral Philosophy, 
was a courteous gentleman, a refined scholar and a 
belles-lettres writer. Like many others of a similar 
type, his controversial pen carried pungency with its 
ink, while in personal contact with his opponents, his 
cautious and modulated utterance neither ruffled the 
temper nor invoked vehemence in reply. Professor 
M'Vickar, so long his successor, has given the life and 
character of this excellent man with graphic accuracy, 
and our late departed and much lamented associate, 
Ogden Hoffman, has furnished a portrait of his virtues 
in an occasional address with the fidelity and attract- 
iveness of the limner's art. 

Our Professor of the Greek and Latin tontrues, was 
the late Dr. Wilson : he enjoyed through a long life the 
reputation of a scholar ; he was a devoted man to his 
calling, and a reader of wide extent. His earnestness 
in imparting knowledge was unabated through a long 
career, and had his intellectual texture been more 
plastic, he liad proved himself to his scholars a tri- 
umphant expositor. He seemed to want the discipline 
of a more refined and general scholarship; at times 
harassed in his classical exegesis, he became the veriest 
pedagogue, and his derivative theory and verbal criti- 
cism, were often provocatives of the loudest laughter. 
The sublimity of Longinus was beyond his grasp, and 
he only betrayed his hardihood when he attempted to 
unfold the beauties of the Sapphic Ode. He was enam- 
ored of Josephus, and recreated in the history of that 



25 

ancient people of Israel ; so mucli so as to enter with 
warmth into measures the better to secure their spir- 
itual salvation ; and if the newspapers, often our best 
authority, are to be relied on, associated himself with a 
Society for the Conversion of the Jews; and it is 
affirmed, he secured, after years of effort, one at least 
within the sheepfold of Calvinistic divinity. Dr. Wil- 
son, though cramped with dactyls and spondees, was 
generous in his nature, of kindly feelings, and of great 
forbearance towards his pupils. Few of our American 
colleges have enjoyed the blessings of so earnest a 
teacher for so long a term of years ; and the occurrence 
is still rarer, that so conscientious a professor has been 
followed by a successor of at least equal zeal in his 
classical department, and who is still further enriched 
with the products of advanced philology and critical 
taste.* 

Columbia College has seen her centurial course. 
While I feel that that noticeable asterisk prefixed to the 
names of her departed sons wall ere long mark my own, 
I cannot but recognize the renown she has acquired 
from the men of thought and action whom she has 
sent forth to enrich the nation. Let us aw^ard her the 
highest praises for the past, while we indulge the fond- 
est hopes for the future, and a great future lies before 
her. The eminent men who have successively presided 
over her government, from her first Johnson to her 
present distinguished head. Dr. King, have uniformly 
enforced with a fixed determination, classical and ma- 
thematical acquisitions, without w^hich a retrograde 
movement in intellectual discipline and in practical 

* Charles Anthon, LL.D. 



26 

pursuits must take place. While I accede to this in- 
dubitable truth, I iiuxy prove scej^tical of the often re- 
peated assertion of my old master, Wilson, that with- 
out the classics you can neither roast a potato nor fly a 
kite. It is currently reported that the fiscal powers of 
Columbia College are more connnanding than ever; 
hence the duty becomes imperative, to enlarge her por- 
tals of wisdom in obedience to the spirit of the age. 
Let her })i'oclaim and confirm the I'iches of classic lore ; 
let its culture, by her example, become more and more 
prevalent. Her statutes assure us she spreads a noble 
banquet for her guests ; but, disclaiming the monitorial, 
let her bear in mind the sanitory pi'ecept of the dietet- 
ist, that variety of aliment is imperative for the full 
development of tlie normal condition. The apician 
dishes of the ancients did not always prove condimental, 
and the rising glory of an independent peoj^le, not yet 
of her own age, has needs and seeks relief in the acqui- 
sition of new pursuits, and in the exercise of new 
thoughts corresponding with the novelty of their con- 
dition and the wants of the republic. 

I had written thus much concerning my venerable 
Alma Mater, and was content to leave her in the en- 
joyment of that repose, if so she desired, which revolv- 
ing years had not disturbed, when lo ! popular report 
and the public journals announce that new life has 
entered into her constitution. The lethargy which, so 
long oppressed her, she has thrown ofi:'; she has found 
relief in the quickened spirit of the times, and in the 
doings of those intellectual bodies wliich surround her, 
and Avhich modern science has called into being. Let 
me, an humble individual, venture to give her the 
assurances of a mighty population, in vrliose midst she 



27 

stands, that the learned and the enlightened, the 
honest and the true, of every quarter, hail her advent 
in unmeasured accents of praise. In the moral, in the 
scholastic, in the scientific world, her friends rise up to 
greet her with warmest approbation ; there are already 
manifested throu^rhout the land outward and visible 
signs of joy at her late movements, and her alumni 
everywhere cherish an inward and genuine rejoicing 
at anticipated benefits. She has found out by the best 
of teachers, experience, that apathy yields not nutri- 
tion ; that there is a conservatism which is more liable 
to destroy than to protect. From Aristotle down to 
the present time, the schoolmen have affirmed that 
laughter is the property of reason, while the excess of 
it has been considered as the mark of folly. It needs 
no cart team to draw the parallel. Liberated by the 
increased wisdom of the age, she now comes forth in 
new" proportions, and puts on the hal:>iliments of one 
conscious that her armor is fitted for the stronorest con- 
test, and ready to enter the field of competition with 
the most heroic of her compeers. The desire on all 
sides to extend the empire of knowledge, opens the 
widest area for her operations, and that great educa- 
tional test, sound, practical, and available instruction, 
we feel assured her richly endowed board of profes- 
sors fully comprehend, the better to rear up the moral 
and intellectual greatness of the American nation. 

More than two centuries ago, Milton, in strong ac- 
cents, told the world, in his tractate on education, when 
referring to the physical sciences, that " the linguist, who 
should pride himself to have all the tongues that Babel 
cleft the world into, yet if he have not studied the 
solid things in them as well as the words and lexicons, 



28 

he were nothing so much to be esteemed a learned man, 
as any yeoman or tradesman completely wise in his 
mother's dialect." Yet ages have rolled on since this 
oracular declaration, while the monition of this great 
scholar has passed by unheeded. But Oxford now 
knows that languages alone will not save her, though 
aided by Aristotle, and Cambridge has found that more 
than the calculus is demanded at her hands. 

I have repeatedly listened to the verbal remarks of 
those two illustrious graduates of old Columbia, Gou- 
verneur Morris and De Witt Clinton, on the subjects 
most important in a course of collegiate instruction 
for the youth of this country. Morris urged, with his 
full, flowing periods, the statesman's science, govern- 
ment and the American constitution ; Clinton was te- 
nacious of the physical and mechanical sciences : both 
concurred in oi)inion that a professorship of cookery 
was indispensable to secure health and longevity to the 
people. But these philosophers had only recently re- 
turned from their exploratory tour to the west, as canal 
commissioners, to decide upon the route for the Erie 
Canal, and, as I conjecture, must have fared indiffer- 
ently at that time in their journey through that almost 
untrodden wilderness. 

From the period when the Abbe Hai'iy unfolded 
the theory of chrystallography, we may date the in- 
troduction, in a liberal way, of the physical branches 
of science in academies and universities; and with the 
chart of Bacon's outlines ever before us, the mighty fact 
of Milton is best understood, that acquaintance with 
things around us will best enable us to comprehend 
things above us ; thus studying the visible, the better 
to learn and admire the invisible. What, then, is to 



29 

be tlie nature of the iutellectnal repast a collegiate sys- 
tem is to set before its scliolars, seeing great diversity 
of sentiment prevails. The spirit of the times declares 
it, and a vast and rising republic demands it. Let the 
classics be not shorn of their proper dimensions, and 
in the discipline of her Anthon and her Drisler, they 
will neither lose symmetry, nor become amorphous. 
Let geometry and her kindred branches prefer her 
claims to consideration by her erudite Hackley, and 
her adjunct, the renowned Davies, of West Point ce- 
lebrity : let natural philosophy and that science which 
seems to inosculate with almost every other, chemistry, 
be developed in all their relations by those ardent dis- 
ciples, McCulloh and Joy: let that adept in teaching, 
her recently elected Leiber, expound constitutional law 
and public and private rights; and while God and 
nature have established an eternal difference between 
things profane and things holy, let the fountain be ever 
open from ^vhich flows that wisdom imparted by your 
venerable instructor, McVickar, for the l^enefit of in- 
genuous youth in all after life. 

In the range of human pursuits, there is no avoca- 
tion so grateful to the feelings as that of unfolding wis- 
dom to generous and susceptible youth : philosophy to 
the mind is as assuredly nutriment to the soul, as 
poison must prove baneful to the animal functions. 
Whatever may be the toil of the instructor, who can 
calculate his returns ? In the exercise of his great pre- 
rogative, he is decorating the temple of the immortal 
mind ; he is refining the affections of the human heart. 
Old Columbia, with her fiscal powers, adequate to 
every emergency, with the rich experience of a cen- 
tury, with the proud roll of eminent sons whom she 



30 

lias reared, and who have exerted au influence on the 
literature and destinies of the commonwealth; these, 
without the enumeration of other concurring circum- 
stances, are enough to encourage comprehensive views 
of blessings in store: and that heart and head will co- 
operate effectively in the reformation of abuses which 
time had almost made venerable, and delight in the 
glorious undertaking, fortified in the councils of a be- 
nignant Providence, of rearing to full stature a Uni- 
versity commensurate with the enlarged policy that 
characterizes New York, is the prayer of this generii- 
tion, and cannot fail to be of the future, to whom its 
perpetuity is bequeathed. 

There are few of my auditory who have not been 
struck with the increase, both in numbers and in 
architectural display, of our ecclesiastical edifices. 
When this Society was au applicant for incorj^oration, 
the Roman Catholic denomination had one jilace of 
worship, situated, in Barclay street, and organized in 
1786 : they now have thirty-nine. The Jews of the 
Portuguese order, the victims of early intolerance by 
the inquisition of Portugal, and who first came among 
us 23rior to the time of old Gov. Stuyvesaut, had but 
one synagogue for upwards of a century, situated in 
Mill street : they now have eighteen. The Episcopal 
denomination had seven churches, they now have forty- 
nine. The Baptists had three, they now boast thirty. 
But I can proceed no further in these details. When 
I published an account of New York and its institu- 
tions in 1832,* we had one hundred and twenty-three 
places of public worship : our aggregate at this time 

* Brewster's Edinburgh Encycloptedia. 



31 

approaches tliree hundred, of which we may state that 
sixty are of the Dutch Reformed and Presbyterian 
denominations, and forty of the Methodists. As I dis- 
miss the churches, I am also compelled to omit almost 
all notice of the departed worthies of the various 
denominations with whom I have been personally 
acquainted, or heard as pastors of their several flocks. 
Our worthy founder, John Pintard, Avas extremely 
solicitous that we should give minute attention to the 
American church, and preserve faithful records of her 
progress. Had we labored severely in this species of 
inquiry we might have had much to do, and I fear 
have proved derelict in many things, which, as a 
Historical Society, called louder on our time and for 
our devotion. 

Early instruction and. reading while a boy, gave 
me something of a bias towards matters pertaining to 
churches and their pastors : my repeated visits to my 
father's grave, in Ann street, when I was not yet seven 
years old, led me to church yards and to epitaphs, 
and I had collected, when scarcely able to pen an 
intelligible hand, quite a volume of those expressive 
memorials of saddest bereavement. I state these facts, 
lest in what I have to say, in a brief notice of a few 
of the earlier clerical worthies of this city, you might 
apprehend, from my personal reminiscences, that I was 
half a century older than I actually am. 

Christopher C. Kunze was the first clergyman I 
ever cast eyes upon. He was of the Evangelical Ger- 
man Lutheran Church. He officiated in the old stone 
edifice corner of Frankfort and William streets ; he was 
the successor of Muhlenburg, who afterwards was the 
president of the convention that ratified the Constitu- 



32 

tioD, and speaker of the House of Representatives. 
His political career is rendered memorable by his cast- 
ing vote in behalf of Jay's treaty. As little is said of 
Knnze in the books, I may state, that he was a native 
of Saxony, was born in 1744, educated at the Halle 
Orphan House, and studied theology at the University 
of that city. Thence he was called in 1771 to the ser- 
vice of the Lutheran churches St. Michael and Zion's in 
Philadelphia. In 1784 he accepted a call from the 
Evangelical Lutheran church in AVilliam, corner of 
Frankfort street, as stated. Here he officiated until his 
death in 1807. He held the professorship of Oriental 
languages in Columl)ia College, from 1784 to 1787, 
and from 1792 to 17^5. While Kunze occupied his 
ecclesiastical trust, a struggle arose to do away the 
German and substitute the English language in preach- 
ing. With assistance. Dr. Kunze prepared a ci Elec- 
tion of Hymns, translated into English : they were 
the most singular specimens of couplets and triplets I 
ever perused, yet they possessed much of the intensity 
and spiritualism of German poetry. This was in the 
fall of 1795.''^ Dr. Kunze was a scholar somewhat after 
the order of old Dr. Styles, and deeply versed in the 
lathers, in theology. He was so abstracted from 
worldly concerns and the living manners of the times, 
that like Jackey Barrett, of Trinity College, Dublin, 
he practically scarcely knew a sheep from a goat, 
though he might have quoted to your satisfaction 
Virgil and Tibullus. He reared the moral and intel- 
lectual structure of Henry Stuber, who wrote the Con- 
tinuance of the life of Franklin, and who then sunk into 

* Published by Ilurtiu &; Commardinger. New York : JoLu Tiebout : 
12mo, 1705. 



33 

the ^rave by an insidious consumption. Kunze was 
versed in astronomy, and was something of an astrolo- 
ger. He was quite skilled in numismatics, and you can 
appreciate the value of the rich collection of medals 
and coins which his family placed at the disposal of 
our Society. Kuuze died fifty years ago, and in his 
death we lost one of our great scholars, and a worthy 
man. He held a newspaper controversy on the Gre- 
gorian period of the century 1800, and published a 
Sermon entitled "King Solomon's great sacrifice," 
delivered at the dedication of the English Lutheran 
Zion Church, October 4, 1801. It demonstrates his 
command of the English language. 

There is associated with this movement of the Eng- 
lish Hymn Book for the Lutheran church, a transac- 
tion which can hardly be overlooked. It is connected 
with our hterary history. The increase of our native 
population, eifter the war, produced an increased de- 
mand for tuition as well as for preaching in the English 
tono'ue, and while the Lutheran Cathecism found a trans- 
lator in the Rev. George Strebeck and Luther's black- 
letter Bible yielded to James's, (the Enghsh,) the Ger- 
man Theatre, with Kotzebue at its head, was now begin- 
ning to find among us readers, and actors in an English 
dress, and WiUiam Dunlap and Charles Smith, a book- 
seller in Pearl street, (afterwards better known for his 
valuable Military Repository, on the xVmerican Revo- 
lution,) and the Rev. H. P. Will, furnished materials for 
the acting drama from this German source, for the 
John street theatre ; so that in Xew York we had a 
foretaste of Kotzebue and Schiller ere they were sub- 
jected to the criticism of a London audience, or were 
embodied in Thompson's translations of the German 
Theatre. 



34 

It was just about this period tliat Dominie Johan- 
nes Daniel Gros, a preacher of the Reformed Dutch 
Church of Nassau street, (where Gen. North erected a 
beautiful mui-al tablet to Baron Steuben,) having dis- 
coursed both in the German and Euo;lish tono-ues, 
retired from the field of his labors, left the city, and 
settled at Canandaigua, where he died in 1812. His 
praises were on every lip, and here and there is still 
a living graduate of Columbia College who will tell 
you how, under those once ornamental buttonwoods, 
he drilled his collegiate class on Moral Philosophy, 
while the refined and classical Cochran (like our 
Anthon of these days) unfolded the riches of the 
Georgics, and Kemp labored to excite into action his 
electrical apparatus. The last of our theological 
worthies w^ho used the lano^uasre of Holland in the 
ministry, was the Rev. Dr. Gerardus Kuypers, of the 
Dutch Reformed Church. He died in 1833. But 
I forbear to trespass upon the interesting Memorial of 
the Dutch Church I'ecently published by our learned 
Vice-President, Dr. De Witt.'^ 

I was well acquainted with Joseph Pilmore and 
Francis Asbury : the former, with Boardmau, the first 
regular itinerant preachers of this country, sent out by 
John Wesley: Pilmore was a stentorian orator. The 
latter, Asbury, was delegated as general superintendent 
of the Society's interest, and was afterwards denomi- 
nated Bishop : they were most laborious and devoted 
men, mighty travellers through the American wilds in 

* See that valuable record, "A Diseonrse delivered in the North Ke- 
formed Dutch Church, (Collegiate,) in the city of New York, on the last 
Sabbath in August, 1856. By Thomas De Witt, D. D., one of the Minis- 
ters of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church. New York, 1857. 



35 

the days of Oglethorpe. Pikiore finally took shelter 
in the doctriues of episcopacy. Asbury was by no 
means an uproarious preacher. A second Whitfield in 
his activity, in his locomotive faculty a sort of Siubad on 
land : wrapt up in ample corduroy dress, he bid defiance 
to the elements, like the adventurous pioneer, journey- 
ing whithersoever he might. He had noble qualities, 
disinterested principles, and enlarged views. He has 
the credit, at an early date, of projecting the Methodist 
Book Concern, that eflicient engine for the diffusion of 
knowledge throughout the land, and second to no other 
establishment of a like nature among us save the Bro- 
thers Harper. No denomination has stronger reasons 
to be grateful to individual effort for its more enlight- 
ened condition, its increased strength, its literature, its 
more refined ministry, and the trophies which already 
adorn the brows of its scholars, than has the Methodist 
Church to Francis Asbury. Pilmore and Asbury were 
both advanced in life when I knew them. Pilmore sus- 
tained a wholesome rubicundity ; Asbury exhibited 
traces of great care and a fixed pallor, in the service of 
his Master. 

I will close this order of the ministry with the 
briefest notice I can take of Tliomas Coke, the first 
Methodist Bishop for America consecrated by Wesley 
himself, in 1Y84, and identified with the progress of 
that society, both in England and in this country. He 
was just fifty years old when I listened to him in the 
summer of 1*797. He was a diminutive creature, little 
higher than is reported to have been the pious Isaac 
Watts, but somewhat more portly. He had a keen vis- 
age, which his acquiline nose made the more decided, yet 
with his ample wig and triangular hat he bore an impres- 



36 

sive i)^rsonnel. His indomitable zeal and devotion 
were manifest to all. An Oxford scholar, a clever au- 
thor, and glowing with devotional fervor, his shrill 
voice penetrated the remotest part of the assembly. 
He discoursed on God's providence, and terminated the 
exercises with reading the beautiful hymn of Addison, 
" The Lord my pasture shall prepare." So distinctly 
enunciatory was his manner, that he almost electrified 
the audience. He dealt in the pathetic, and adepts in 
preaching might profit by Coke. Though sixty years 
have elapsed since that period, I have him before me as 
of yesterday. Thus much of Asbury and Coke, legible 
characters, whole-hearted men, the primitive pioneers 
of methodism in this broadcast land. 

I should like to have dwelt upon the character of 
another great apostle of the Arminian faith, Thomas 
F. Sargeant. He was cast much after the same phys- 
ical mould as our John M. Mason. He had little 
gesticulation, save the occasional raising of the palms 
of his hands. He stood with an imposing firmness in 
the sacred desk. A master of intonation, his modulated 
yet strong and clear utterance, poured forth a flood of 
thought characterized by originality and profundity on 
christian ethics and christian faith, winning- admira- 
tion and securing conviction. He was free from dog- 
matism, and aimed to secure his main object, to render 
religion the guiding rule of life. His blows were well 
directed to break the stubborn heart. He was a 2:reat 
workman in strengthening the foundation of methodism 
among us : but I desist from further details. 

I introduce Bishop Provoost in this place, because I 
think our Episcopal brethren have too much over- 
looked the man, his learning, his liberality, and his 



37 

patriotism. He had the bearing of a well-stalled 
Bishop, was of pleasing address, and of refined manners. 
He imbibed his first classical taste at King's College, 
and was graduated at Peter's House, Cambridge. He 
became skilled in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, 
German, and Italian languages, and we have been as- 
sured he made an English poetical version of Tasso. I 
never listened to his sacred ministrations but once, in 
Old Trinity ; he was then advanced in years. He was 
quite a proficient in Botanical knowledge, and was 
amouo: the earliest in Encrland who studied the Lin- 
n?ean classification. I long ago examined his copy of 
" Caspar Bauhin's Historia Plantarum," whom, on a 
written leaf affixed to the first volume, he calls the 
prince of botanists, and which MS. bears date 1766. 
He was to the back-bone a friend to the cause of rev- 
olutionary America ; and I believe it is now granted, 
that there was scarcely another of that religious order 
among us who was not a loyalist. I ought to add, that 
a portion of his library was given to our Society by 
C. D. Colden, his son-in-law, who furnished me with the 
MS. of his life, a few days before his death, and to 
which I ventured, with the approbation of Mr. Colden, 
to make additional facts concerning the Bishop's at- 
tainments in natural science. 

Our enlightened founder, John Pintard, was per- 
sonally known, during a long life, to a large majority 
of the citizens of this metropolis, and was universally 
consulted by individuals, of almost every order, for in- 
formation touching this state's transactions, and the mul- 
tifarious occurrences of this city, which have marked 
its progress since our revolutionary struggle. Persons 
and things, individualities and corporations, literary, 



38 

biographical, ecclesiastical, and historical circii instances, 
municipal and legislative enactments, internal and ex- 
ternal commerce, all these were prominent among the 
number ; and his general accuracy as to persons and 
dates made him a living chronology. Daring a long 
period of his memorable life, our learned associate. Dr. 
Mitchill, held the same distinction in the walks of 
science. Pintard's life was not, however, solely retro- 
spective : he had the capabilities of one whose vision 
extended far ahead. Witness his remarkable estimate 
of the growth of this city, in inhabitants and in extent, 
dating from about 1805, and comprehending a period 
lono- after his death. The fulfilment is so strikinof with 
the facts as he prognosticated, that the statistical writer 
cannot but marvel at the precision of his data and the 
fulfilment of his calculations. See, further, his earnest 
co-operation with De Witt Clinton and Cadwallader D. 
Golden, Thomas Eddy, and others, in bringing together 
that first mass meeting in behalf of the Erie Policy, 
held in the Park, when the requisites for such assump- 
tion jeoparded almost life, and cut oft' all political ad- 
vancement. Look at his enlarged views to promote 
the interests of that church to which he so early and 
so long had claims as an exalted member, in eftectually 
securing the noble Sherrard bequest for the Theologi- 
cal Seminary, and his successful application to George 
Lorrillard for the twenty-five thousand dollar fund for 
a professorship : canvass his merits for the organization 
of many of the libraries which now enrich this city, 
and the cheerful aid with which he united with the 
late benevolent William Wood, in furtherance of a 
hundred other public objects. Examine for yourselves 
the records of the office of the city insj^ector, and learn 



39 

the obstacles he encountered to establish that depart- 
ment of the city institutions, for the registry of births 
and deaths. But I will no longer tire you. 

Pintard's astonishing love and reverence for the 
past was no less remarkable. The men of the Revolu- 
tion were his idols, and perhaps his longest attached 
and most important of this class were Willett, Jay, 
Fish, and Col. Trumbull. He often conversed with me 
of his acquaintance with Washington, Jefferson, Madi- 
son, Geo. Clinton, Rufus King, and Hamilton, but I am 
left to infer that with some of these his personal asso- 
ciations were limited. As a deputy agent under Elias 
Boudinot, as commissary-general for prisoners, he was 
fully conversant, from observation, with the horrors of 
the jail and the Jersey prison ship, and he never touched 
that subject that he did not i-evive reminiscences of 
Philip Freneau, the scenes of the old Sugar House, the 
hospital j)i*actice conducted by Michaelis and others 
on the American prisoners in the old Dutch Church, 
(now Post Office,) then appropriated to medical accom- 
modation, as well as for other purposes, by the British 
army. It is familiarly known to my audience that our 
state legislature during the session of 181T~'18 passed 
a law, prepared by Henry Meigs, for the disinterment 
of the body of Montgomery in Canada for re-burial 
under the monument in St. Paul's Church, N. Y. Soon 
after the passage of the act, I waited upon Mr. Pintard 
on some subject connected with the Historical Society, 
and found his mind worried. " You seem, sir," said I, 
" to be embarrassed." " Somewhat so," replied he ; " I 
have just received an Albany letter requiring specific 
information : they are at a loss to know where Mont- 
gomery's bones lie. I shall be able soon to give them 



40 

an answer." It is almost needless to acid that Pintard's 
directions led to the very spot where, within a few feet 
designated by him, the remains of the patriot were dis- 
covered. 

It had long been understood that the old Chamber 
of Commerce had a full-length portrait, painted by 
Pine, of Lieut. Governor Colden. Pintard was for years 
in search of it : at length he had prospects of success ; 
and ransacking the loft of the old Tontine, (recently 
demolished,) he discovered the prize among a parcel of 
old lumber. " I shall now^," said he, " take measures to re- 
vive that excellent old corporation, much to be regarded 
for what it has done for our metropolis, and for what 
it is capable of doing." My friend Dr. King can scarcely 
forget John Pintard in his History of the Chamber of 
Commerce. This precious painting of Colden is now 
among your historical treasures. 

If a careful examination be made of the earlier 
records of our Historical Society, it will be seen that 
our founder, John Pintard, filled with the idea of estab- 
lishing this institution, most judiciously sought the 
countenance of the reverend the clergy of this metrop- 
olis. He w^as alive to the beneficial zeal employed by 
Jeremy Belknap and other di'sdnes in behalf of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society : he considered the 
clergy as among the safest guardians of literature and 
history, and that their recommendation of the measure 
would prove of signal utility. The Rev. Dr. Samuel 
Miller, of whom I have on several occasions sj^ioken in 
laudatory terms, w^as at this period a prominent indi- 
vidual throughout the land, by the recent publication 
of his " Brief Retrospect," which obtained for its author 
the applause of both hemispheres. This able divine 



41 

and courteous and exemplary character, had also an- 
nounced to his friends his intention of preparing for the 
press a " History of the State of New York," and it was 
further understood that he had given much study to 
historical research. Dr. John M. Mason, who stood 
without a parallel among us as a preacher, and as a 
student of ecclesiastical affairs, with strong feelings for 
New York, was also one on whom Pintard relied for 
counsel. There was, moreover, so adventurous a daring 
in the very elements of Mason's constitution, and his 
personal influence was so wide among the literati, that 
it was inferred his countenance could not but increase 
the number of advocates for the plan. Innovation 
presented no alarm to Dr. Mason; progress was his 
motto. He had heard much of revolutionary times 
fj-om the lips of his friend Hamilton. His father's pa- 
ti-iotism circulated in his veins : he knew the uncertain- 
ties of historical data, and that the nation's history, as 
well as that of the State's, was yet to be written. This 
heroic scholar and divine, whom I never think of with- 
out admiration of the vastness of intellectual power 
which God in his wisdom vouchsafes to certain mortals, 
was prominently acknowledged as the chieftain of the 
ecclesiastical brotherhood of those days. He contem- 
plated, moreover, a life of his friend Hamilton, and 
doubtless was often absorbed in the consideration of 
American history. The paramount obligations of his 
pastoral and scholastic duties, and their imperative 
urgency, must unquestionably be assigned as reasons for 
his non-performance. As a reader he was unrivalled ; as 
an orator in the sacred desk, his disciplined intellect 
shed its radiance over all he uttered. Rich in a knowl- 
edge of mankind, and of the ethics of nations, the 
4 



42 

ample treasures of ancient and modern learning were 
summoned at command, with a practical influence at 
which doubt fled, and sophistry and indifference stood 
abashed. He was bold in his animadversions on public 
events, and lashed the vices of the times with unspar- 
ing severity. There was no equivocation in his nature, 
either in sentiment or in manner. His address to his 
people, on resigning his pastoral charge of the Cedar 
Street Church, is, perhaps, his greatest oratorical effort. 
His Plea for Sacramental Communion evinced a tolera- 
tion worthy of apostolic Christianity : his address on 
the formation of the American Bible Society, prepared 
within a few hours for the great occasion, by its mas- 
culine vigor crushed opposition even in high quarters, 
and led captive the convention. " We have not a man 
among us," said Olinthus Gregory, of the British So- 
ciety, " who can cope with your Mason. All have 
wondered at the sublimity and earnestness of his ad- 
dress." In his conversation Dr. Mason was an intel- 
lectual gladiator, while his commanding person and 
massive front added force to his argument. He knew 
the ductility of words, and generally chose the strongest 
for strongest thoughts. He had a nomenclature which 
he often strikingly used. In reference to an individual 
whose support to a certain measure was about to be 
solicited, " Put no confidence in him," said the doctor, 
" he's a lump of negation." In speaking of the calamitous 
state of the wicked and the needy in times of pestilence, 
he broke forth in this language : — " To be poor 
in this world, and to be damned in the next, is to 
be miserable indeed." He had a deep hatred of the 
old-fashioned pulpit, which he called an ecclesiastical 
tub, and said it cramped both mind and body. With 



AVhitfielc!, he wished the mountain for a pulpit, and 
the heavens for a sounding-board. His example in 
introducing the platform in its stead has proved so 
effective, that he may claim the merit of having led to 
an innovation which has already Ijecorae almost univer- 
sal among us. As Dr. Mason is historical, and a portion 
of our Society's treasure, I could not be more brief con- 
cerning him. If ever mortal possessed decision of char- 
acter, that mortal was John M. Mason. 

Pintard, thus aided by the cooperation of so many 
and worthy individuals in professional life, determined 
to prosecute his design with vigor. He had doubt- 
less submitted his plan to his most reliable friend 
De Witt Clinton, at an early day of its inception, and it 
is most probable that by their concurrence Judge Eg- 
bert Benson was selected as the most judicious choice 
for first President. This venerable man had loua: 
been an actor in some of the most trying scenes of his 
country's legislative history, and was himself the subject 
of history. His antecedents were all favorable to his 
being selected: of Dutch parentage, a native of the 
city of New York, and a distinguished classical scholar 
of King's College, from which he was graduated in 
1765. He was one of the Committee of Safety : deeply 
read in legal matters, and as a proficient in the science 
of pleading, he had long been known as holding a high 
rank in jurisprudence. By an ordinance of the Con- 
vention of 1777, he was appointed first Attorney- 
Greneral of the State — he was also a member of the 
first legislature of 1777. Perhaps it may be new to 
some of my hearers to learn, that he was also one of 
the three Commissioners appointed by the United 
States to assist with other Commissioners that mio'ht 



44 

be chosen by Sir Guy Carleton, to superintend tlie em- 
barkation of the tories for Nova Scotia. The letter to 
Carleton of their appointment signed by Judge Egbert 
Benson, William Smith, and Daniel Parker, bears date 
New York, June 17, 1788. I am indebted to our 
faithful historian, Mr. Lossing, for this curious fact. 

In 1789 Mr. Benson was elected one of the six Rep- 
resentatives of New York to the first Congress, in 
which body he continued four years. In his Congres- 
sional career, he was often associated in measures with 
Rufus King, Fisher Ames, Oliver Ellsworth, and 
others of the same illustrious order of men. Nor did 
his official public services end here. In 1794 he was 
appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of New York, 
where he remained several years. He was a Regent of 
the University from 1789 to 1802. He was a most 
intimate and reliable friend of that stern and inflexi- 
ble patriot. Gov. John Jay. He lived tbe admiration 
of all good men to the very advanced age of 87 years, 
blessed with strength of body and soundness of mind, 
and died at Jamaica, on Long Island, in 1833, confident 
in the triumphs of a Christian life. 

The patriotism of Judge Benson, his devotion to 
his country in its most trying vicissitudes, his political 
and moral integrity, were never questioned. His 
kindliness of feeling, and his social and unassuming de- 
meanor, struck every beholder. Such was Egbert 
Benson, the individual earliest and wisely pointed out 
as our first President. 

My acquaintance with Judge Benson did not com- 
mence until near the close of his official tenure in this 
Society. He presided at the first great festival we 
held in 1809, at the delivery of Dr. Miller's Discourse, 



45 

on tlie 4tli of September, 1809, designed to commemo- 
rate the discovery of New York, being the completion 
of the second century since that event. I have, on a 
former occasion, given an account of that celebration. 
Judge Benson was anecdoticai in an eminent degree : 
his iron memory often gave proofs of its tenacity. 
His reminiscences of his native city are often evinced 
in his curious Kecord of New York in the olden times. 
From him I learned that our noble faculty of physic 
had, in those earlier days, their disputations, theoreti- 
cal and practical, as we have witnessed them in our 
own times. Strong opposition was met in those days 
to the adoption of inoculation for the small-pox, as pur- 
sued by Dr. Beekman Van Beuren, in the old Alms 
House, prior to 1770. Old McGrath, a violent Scotch- 
man, who came among us about 1*743, and who is im- 
mortalized by Smollett, had the houor of introducing 
the free use of cold bathing and cold lavations in fever. 
He doubtless had drawn his notions from Sir John 
Floyer, but probably had never conceived a single 
principle enforced by Currie. McGrath's whole life 
was a perpetual turmoil. Dr. Henry Mott, who died 
in 1840, aged 83 years, and the father of the illustri- 
ous surgeon Dr. Valentine Mott, was among the 
prominent practitioners who adopted the mercurial prac- 
tice, with Ogden and Muirson, of Long Island, not 
without much opposition. But the most serious ren- 
contre in our medical annals, according to the Judge, 
was that which took place with Dr. Pierre Michaux, 
a French refugee, who settled in New York about 
1791, who published an English tract on a surgical 
subject, with a Latin title-page. The pamphlet was 
too insignificant to prove an advantageous advertise- 



46 

raent to the penniless author, but Dr. Wright Post, of 
most distinguished renown in our records of surgery, 
feeling annoyed by its appearance, solicited his inti- 
mate friend, the acrimonious Dunlap, the dramatic 
writer, to wnite a caricature of the work and the 
author. The request was promptly complied with, and 
at the old John Street Theatre a ludicrous after-piece 
was got up, illustrative of a surgical case, Fractura 
Minimi Digiti^ with a meeting of doctors in solemn 
consultation upon the catastrophy. Michanx repaired 
to the theatre, took his seat among the spectators, and 
found the representation of his person, his dress, his 
manner, and his speech, so fairly a veri-resemblance, 
that he was almost ready to admit an alibi, and alter- 
nately thought himself now among the audience — now 
among the performers. The humiliated Michaux 
sought redress by an assault upon Dunlap, as, on the 
ensuing Sabbath, he was coming out from worship in 
the Brick Church. The violent castigation Dunlap 
received at the church portal, suspended his public de- 
votional duties for at least a month. Michaux, now 
the object of popular ridicule, retired to Staten Island, 
where after a while his life was closed, oppressed with 
penury, and mortification of mind. I have thus (by 
way of parenthesis) introduced some things touching 
the doctors of years past. I ci'ave your clemency for 
the interruption. I am so constituted, that I cannot 
avoid a notice of our departed medical men whenever I 
address New Yorkers on the subject of their city. I 
must plead, moreover, that these medical anecdotes are 
connected with the materials I derived from Judofe 
Benson himself. They in part illustrate his minute re- 
cognition of events and liis tenacious recollection. 



47 

So intimately connected with history is the record of 
juridical proceedings, and the actors thereof, the actual 
founders of statutory measures, especially in our popular 
form of government, that state events necessarily re- 
ceive their distinctive features from the members of the 
bar. In short, is not the statute book the most fiiithful 
history of a people? Mr. Pintard, with the largest 
views to success, earnestly sought the cooperation of 
that enlightened and important profession. The laws 
of a nation, said he, are pre-eminently historical in their 
nature, and fall within our scope. I am justified in the 
assertion, from personal knowledge, that no class of our 
citizens embarked with greater zeal in strengthening 
the interests of this Association than did the members 
of that faculty. If you search the minutes of our 
proceedings, you will find they constitute a large 
portion of our early friends, and that, too, at a period 
when the idea of rearing this establishment was pro- 
nounced preposterous, by many even of the well in- 
formed. 

I shall glance at a few of these worthies among our 
eai'liest, our strongest, and most devoted supporters. 
Anthony Bleecker, who deserves an ample memoir, was 
a native of the city of New York ; he was born in 
October, 1770, and died in March, 1827. He was a 
graduate of Columbia College, reared to the profession 
of the law, and was a gentleman of classical acquisi- 
tions, and refined belles-lettres taste. As a member of 
the Drone Club, a social and literary circle, which 
had at that time an existence of some years among us, 
and which included among its members Kent, Johnson, 
Dunlap, Edward and Samuel Miller, and Charles Brock- 
den Brown, he proved an efficient associate in our 



48 

ranlss. He was for many years a prolific contributor 
to the periodical press, in elegant literature, and wrote 
for the Drone in pi'ose and verse. Well stored in his- 
torical and tojoographical matters, not a small portion 
of our library, which contains our early literature, was 
due to his inquisitive spirit. His sympathies were ever 
alive to acts of disinterested benevolence, and as proof 
w^e may state that from the crude notes, journals, and 
log-books which Capt. James Eiley furnished, Bleecker 
drew up gratuitously that popular " Narrative of 
the Brig Commerce," which obtained so wide a circu- 
lation both in this country and abroad. He was 
almost unceasingly engaged in American records of a 
literary nature, and was just such a scholar for a con- 
tributor as the English " Notes and Queries " would 
have solicited for their woi'k. He wi-ote to Bisset, the 
English writer of the reign of George IH., to correct 
the error which he had pi'omulgated, that Henry 
Cruger, the colleague of Burke, had circumscribed his 
speech to the enunciation of three words, " I say 
ditto ;" and which Bisset finally cancelled in subsequent 
reprints. The productions of Mr. Bleecker's pen were 
such as to make his friends regret that he did not elab- 
orate a work on some weighty subject. He died a 
Christian death, in 1827, aged 59 years. His habits, 
his morals, his weight of character, may be inferred 
from the mention of his associates, Irving, Paulding, 
Yerplanck, and Brevoort. The bar passed sympathizing 
resolutions on his demise, and John Pintard lost a wise 
counsellor. The portrait of Mr. Bleecker in the N. Y. 
Society Library, is a lifelike work of art. 

William Johnson is of too recent death not to be 
lield in fresh remembrance by many now present. He 



49 

was a native of Conuecticut ; he settled early in ]N"ew 
York, and entered upon the profession of the law, and 
was engaged from 1806 to 1823 as Keporter of the 
Supreme Court of New York, and from 1814 to 1823, 
of the Court of Chancery. He died in 1848, when he 
had passed his 80th year. He is recorded in the ori- 
ginal act of your incorporation. He for many years 
had a watchful eye over the interests of the Society. 
It is beyond my province to speak of the value of his 
labors. He was of a calm and dignified bearing, and 
of the strictest integrity. As he was the authorized 
reporter of the legal decisions of the State at a period 
when her juridical science was expounded by her 
greatest masters, Kent, Spencer, Van Nest, Thompson, 
&c., and was at its highest renown and of corresponding 
authority throughout the Union, his numerous volumes 
are pronounced the most valuable we possess in the 
department of the law. He was liberal in his dona- 
tions of that part of our library devoted to jurispru- 
dence. His most interesting historical contributions 
to the library were those of the newspaper press : — the 
New York Daily Advertiser from its commencement, 
an uninterrupted series, until near its close, and the 
New York Evening Post from its beginning in 1801, 
and for many consecutive years, may be cited as proofs 
in point. 

With an earnestness surpassed by none of our earlier 
fraternity, the late Peter A. Jay espoused the cause of 
this institution, and contributed largely to its library- 
His benefactions embraced much of that curious and 
most valuable material you fiud classed with your rare 
list of newspapers, printed long before our Kevolutionary 
contest. I apprehend he must have been thus enabled 



50 

througli the liberality of his illustrious father, Governor 
Jay. Peter A. Jay was most solicitous in all his doings 
touching the Society, that the association should restrict 
itself to its specified designation. Ev^ery thing relative 
to its historical transactions he would cherish, for he 
deemed New York the theatre on which the great 
events of the period of our colonization and of the war 
of independence transpired. It is in no wise remark- 
able that the library is so rich in newspaper and other 
periodical journals. "A file of American newspapers," 
said Mr. Jay, " is of far more value to our design, than 
all the Byzantine historians." You may well V)oast of 
the vast accumulation of that sj^ecies of recorded 
knowledge within your walls. 

So far as I can recollect, our most efficient members, 
as Johnson, Jay, Pintard, M'Kesson, Clinton, Morris, 
and a host of others, have borne testimony to the high 
importance of preserving those too generally evanescent 
documents. They are the great source from which we 
are to derive our knowledge of the form and pressure 
of the times. No one was more emphatic in the decla- 
ration of this opinion than Gouverueur Morris. 

John M'Kesson, a nephew of the M'Kesson who was 
Secretary of the N. Y. Convention, an original member, 
was a lari^^e contributor to our Le^rislative documents : 
not the least in value of which were the Journals of 
the Provincial Congress and Convention, together with 
the proceedings of the Committee of Safety from May, 
1775, to the adoption of the State Constitution at the 
close of the Northern campaign in 1777. '^ They in- 
clude," says our distinguished associate, Mr. Folsom, 
" the period of the invasion of the territory of the State 
by the British array under General Burgoyne." 



51 

Tlie minutes of our first meetins: notice the attend- 
auce of Samuel Bayard, jun. He was connected by 
marriage witli the family of our founder, Pintard, and 
they were most intimate friends. He was a gentleman 
of the old school, a scholar, a jurist, a trustee of Prince, 
ton College, a public-spirited man, and a hearty co- 
operator in establishing this association. Widely ac- 
quainted with historical occurrences, and, if I err not, 
on terms of personal communication with many of the 
active men of the Kevolution, includino; Governor Liv- 
ingston, of New Jersey, through Mr. Bayard's agency, 
and John Pintard, we obtained the Independent Re- 
flector, the Watch Tower of 1754, the American Whig, 
<fe;c., records indispensable to a right understanding of 
the controversy of the American Episcopate, and the 
contentions which sprung out of the charter of King's 
College. Livingston's life is full of occurrences : he was 
a voluminous writer on the side of liberty, when his 
couutiy most needed such advocates : his patriotism 
was of the most intrepid order, and he commanded the 
approbation of Washington. Theodore Sedgwick, not 
long since, has given us his valuable biography, and 
the Duyckiucksin the " Cyclopaedia of American Liter- 
ature," a legacy of precious value, for the consultation 
of writers on the progress of knowledge in the New 
World, have treated his character and his labors with 
ability and impartiality. Some forty years ago, I saw 
the prospectus for the publication of Governor Living- 
ston's works, in several volumes, at the office of the 
Messrs. Collins. Had the j^lan been executed, the arm 
of the patriot would have been nerved with increased 
strength in behalf of religious toleration and the 
rights of man, by the noble defence of this bold ex- 



52 

plorer iuto the domain of popular freedom. But, 
alas ! the materials for the contemplated work, in 
print and in manuscript, were suifered to lie in neglect 
in a printing loft, until time and the rats had destroyed 
them too far for typographical purposes. I was told 
that his son, Brockholst Livingston, the renowned 
United States judge, had the matter in charge, and I 
have presumed that the remembrance of his father's 
literary labors was obliterated from his memory, 
through the weightier responsibilities of juridical busi- 
ness. I believe we are obligated to Samuel Bayard 
principally for that remarkable series of MSS., tlie 
Journals of the House of Commons durins; the Protec- 
torate of Cromwell, which fill so conspicuous a niche 
in j^our library. Mr. Bayard, I apprehend, obtained 
them through Governor Livingston, or, perhaps, I 
would Ije more accurate, were I to say, that they were 
once in the possession of the Governor. I remember 
bringing over from Paulus Hook, now Jersey City* some 
of the volumes. 

We possessed liberal benefactors in our earlier 
movements for a library, in Samuel M. Hopkins, Cad- 
wallader 1). Colden, and Gulian C. Verplanck. This 
last named gentleman, who is recorded as an early mem- 
ber, and whom, thanks to a beneficent Providence, we 
still hail among the living celebrities of the Republic, 
both in letters and in humanity, stored with varied 
knowledge, and actuated by true Knickerbocker feel- 
ings, deemed the library department of enduring im- 
portance, and with a comprehensive view affirmed, that 
it was the bounden duty of the Society to collect every 
book, pamphlet, chart, map, or newspaper that threw 
light on the progress of the State, its cities, towns, or 



53 

on the history of its literature ; tlius carrying out the 
plan unfolded in the Society's address to the public at 
their first organization. That we profit by more than 
his advice, may be seen in his historical discourse on the 
early European friends of America, and the tribute he 
pays to the character of our forefathers, the Dutch and 
the Huguenots. 

From the studies and accomplishments of the well- 
instructed physician, from the wide range of know- 
ledge, physical and mental, that falls within his obser- 
vation ; from the fact that every department of Nature 
must be explored, the better to discipline him properly 
to exercise his art ; the inference may be readily drawn 
that the faculty of medicine would scarcely prove in- 
different to the creation of an institution fraught with 
such incentives to intellectual culture, as are necessarily 
embraced within the range and intentions of our Histo- 
rical Society. Moreover, I incline to the belief, that 
veneration for our predecessors is somewhat a charac- 
teristic of the cultivators of medical philosophy : the 
past is not to be overlooked, and the means for its pre- 
servation is in itself an intellectual advancement. The 
concurrence of the leading medical men of that early 
day was proved by the fellowship of Hosack, Bruce, 
Mitchill, Miller, "Williamson, and, shortly after, by N. 
Romayne, and others of renown. These distinguished 
characters need no commendation of ours at this time. 
Your secretary has made records of their services, and 
it has so chanced, that, from personal intimacy, I have 
long ago been enabled to present humble memorials in 
clifterent places, of their professional influence and 
deeds. They were men of exj^ausive views, nor were 
the elements of practical utility idle in their hands. Of 



54 

my joreceptor and friend, David Hosack, let it be suffi- 
cient to remark that, distinguished beyond all his com- 
petitors in the healing art, for a long series of years, 
he was acknowledged, by every hearer, to have been 
the most eloquent and impressive teacher of scientific 
medicine and clinical practice this country has pro- 
duced. He was, indeed, a great instructor ; his descrip- 
tive powers and his diagnosis were the admiration of all ; 
his efficiency in rearing, to a state of high consideration, 
the College of Physicians and Surgeons, while he held 
the resi:)onsible office of professor, is known throughout 
the Republic ; his early movements to estal)lish a medi- 
cal library in the New York Hospital ; his cooperation 
with the numerous charities which glorify the metro- 
polis ; his adventurous outlay for the establishment of 
a State Botanical Garden ; his hygienic suggestions the 
better to improve the medical police of New York ; his 
primary formation of a mineralogical cabinet ; his co- 
pious writings on fever, quarantines, and foreign pes- 
tilence, in which he was the strenuous and almost the 
sole advocate for years, of doctrines now verified by 
popular demonstration; these, and a thousand other 
circumstances, secured to him a weight of character 
that was almost universally felt throughout the metro- 
polis. It was not unfrequeutly remarked by our citi- 
zens, that Clinton, Hosack, and Hobart were the tripod 
on which our city stood. The lofty aspirations of 
Hosack were further evinced by his whole career as a 
citizen. Surrounded by his large and costly library, 
his house was the resort of the learned and enlisrhtened 
from every part of the world. No traveller from 
abroad rested satisfied without a personal interview 
with him ; and, at his evening soirees, the literati, the 



55 

philosopher, and the statesman, the skilful in natural 
science, and the explorer of new regions ; the archaeo- 
logist and the theologue met together, participators in 
the recreation of familiar intercourse. Your printed 
volumes contain all, I believe, he ever prepared for you 
as your President. His life was a triumph in services 
rendered and in honors received ; his death was a loss 
to New York, the city of his birth; his remains were 
followed to the grave by the eminent of every profes- 
sion, and by the humble in life whom his art had re- 
lieved. Hosack was a man of profuse expenditure ; he 
regarded money only for what it might command. 
Had he possessed the wealth of John Jacob Astor, he 
might have died poor. 

Early at the commencement of your patriotic un- 
dertakinof was recorded Archibald Bruce as a member. 
We had, at that time, more than one Bruce in the 
faculty among us. He of the Historical Society was 
the physician and mineralogist. He was born in New 
York in 1771, was graduated at Columbia College, 
studied medicine with Hosack, and, in 1800, received 
the doctorate at the Edinburgh University. While in 
Scotland, he acquired a knowledge of the Wernerian 
theory under Jameson, and subsequently became a 
correspondent of the Abbe Haiiy, the founder of 
Crystallography. He collected a large cabinet of 
minerals while travelling about in Europe, projected 
the "American Journal of Mineralogy" in 1810, the 
first periodical of that science in the United States, 
and was created Mineralogical Professor by the regents 
of the University, at the organization of the College of 
Physicians and Surgeons. He had a cultivated taste 
for the Fine Arts, and contributed to our Library. 



56 

He died in 1818. His reputation rests with his dis- 
covery, at Hoboken, of the Hydrate of Magnesia. In 
"Silli man's Journal" there is a biography of him. 

The universal praise which Dr. Mitchill enjoyed in 
almost every part of the globe where science is culti- 
vated, during a long life, is demonstrative that his 
merits were of a high ordei". A discourse might be 
delivered on the variety and extent of his services in 
the cause of learning and liumanity ; and as his biog- 
raphy is already before the public in the " National 
Poi-trait Gallery," and we are promised that by Dr. 
Akerly, I have little to say at this time but what may be 
strictly associated with our Institution. His character 
had many peculiarities : his knowledge w^as diversified 
and most extensive, if not always profound. Like most 
of our sex, he was married ; but, as ( )ld Fuller Avould 
say, the only issues of bis body were the products of his 
brain. He advanced the scientific reputation of New 
York by his early promulgation of the Lavoisierian 
system of chemistry, w^hen first appointed professor in 
Columbia College : his first scientific paper was an 
essay on Evaporation : his mineralogical survey of New 
York, in 1797, gave Volney many hints : his anal^^sis 
of the Saratoga waters enhanced the importance of 
those mineral springs. His ingenious theory of septic 
acid gave impulse to Sir Humphry Davy's vast dis- 
coveries : his doctrines on pestilence awakened inquiry 
from every class of observers throughout the Union : 
his expositions of a theory of the earth and solar sys- 
tem, captivated minds of the highest qualities. His 
correspondence with Priestley is an exam2)le of the 
delicious manner in which arjxument can be conducted 
in philosophical discussion : his elaborate account of 



57 

the fishes of our waters invoked the plaudits of Cu- 
vier. His reflections on Somnium evince psychological 
views of original combination. His numerous papers 
on natural history enriched the annals of the Lyceum, 
of which he was long president. His researches on 
the ethnological characteristics of the red man of 
America, betrayed the benevolence of his nature and 
his gerterous spirit : his fanciful article for a new and 
more appropriate geographical designation for the 
United States, was at one period a topic which enlisted 
a voluminous correspondence, now printed in your 
Proceedings. He increased our knowledge of the 
vegetable materia medica of the United States. He 
wrote largely to Percival on noxious agents. He 
cheered Fulton when dejected ; encouraged Livingston 
in appropriation ; awakened new zeal in Wilson the 
ornithologist, when the Governor, Tompkins, had nigh 
paralyzed him by his frigid and unfeeling reception ; 
and, with Pintard and Golden, was a zealous promoter 
of that system of internal improvement which has 
stamped immortality on the name of Glinton. He 
cooperated with Jonathan Williams in furtherance of 
the Military Academy at West Point, and for a long 
series of years was an important professor of useful 
knowledge in Golumbia Gollege and in the College 
of Physicians and Surgeons. His letter to Tilloch, of 
London, on the progress of his mind in the investiga- 
tion of septic acid, is curious as a physiological docu- 
ment. The leading papers from his pen are to be 
found in the New York Medical Eepository ; yet 
he wrote in the American Medical and Philosophical 
Register, the New York Medical and Physical Jour- 
nal, the American Mineralogical Journal, and sup- 
5 



58 

plied several other periodicals, both abroad and at 
home, with the results of his cogitations. He was one 
of the commissioners appointed by the general govern- 
ment for the construction of a new naval force to be 
propelled by steam, the steamer Fulton the First. 
While he was a member of the United States Senate, 
he was unwearied in effecting the adoption of improved 
quarantine laws ; and, among his other acts, strenuous 
to lessen the duties on the importation of rags, in order 
to render the manufacture of paper cheaper, to aid the 
diffusion of knowledge by printing. 

There was a rare union in Dr. Mitchill of a mind 
of vast and multifarious knowledge and of poetic 
imagery. Even in his " Epistles to his Lady Love," 
the excellent lady who became his endeared wife, he 
gave utterance of his emotions in tuneful numbers, and 
likened his condition unto that of the dove, with trepi- 
dation seeking safety in the ark. Ancient and modern 
languages were unlocked to him, and a wide range in 
physical science, the pabulum of his intellectual repast. 
An essay on composts, a tractate on the deaf and dumb, 
verses to Septon or to the Indian tribes, might be 
eliminated from his mental alembic within the compass 
of a few hours. He was now engaged with the anat- 
omy of the egg^ and now deciphering a Babylonian 
brick ; now involved in the nature of meteoric stones, 
now on the different species of brassica ; now on the 
evaporization of fresh water, now on that of salt ; now 
offering suggestions to Garnet, of New Jersey, the cor- 
respondent of Mark Akenside, on the angle of the wind- 
mill, and now concurring with Micheaux on the beauty 
of the black walnut as ornamental for parlor furniture. 
In the morning he might be found composing songs for 



59 

the nursery, at noon dietetically experimenting and writ- 
ing on fislies, or unfolding a new theory on terrene for- 
mations, and at evening addressing his fair readers on 
the healthy influences of the alkalis, and the depura- 
tive virtues of whitewashing. At his country retreat 
at Plandome he might find full employment in trans- 
lating, for his mental diversion, Lancisi on the fens 
and marshes of Rome, or in rendering into English 
poetry the piscatory eclogues of Sanuazarius. Yes- 
terday, in workmanlike dress, he might have been 
engaged, with his friend Elihu H. Smith, on the natural 
history of the American elk, or 23erplexed as to the 
alimentary nature of tadpoles, on which, according to 
Noah Webster, the people of Vermont almost fattened 
during a season of scarcity ; to-day, attired in the cos- 
tume of a native of the Feejee Islands, (for presents 
were sent him from all quarters of the globe,) he was 
better accoutred for illustration, and for the recep- 
tion, at his house, of a meeting of his philosophical 
acquaintance ; while tomorrow, in the scholastic robes 
of an LL. D., he would grace the exercises of a college 
commencement. 

I never encountered one of more wonderful mem- 
ory : when quite a young man he would return from 
church service, and wi'ite out the sermon nearly ver- 
batim. There was little display in his habits or man- 
ners. His means of enjoyment corresponded with his 
desires, and his Franklinean principles enabled him to 
rise superior to want. With all his official honors and 
scientific testimonials, foreign or native, he was ever 
accessible to everybody ; the counsellor of the young, 
the dictionary of the learned. To the interrogatory, 
why he did not, after so many years of labor, revisit 



60 

abroad tlie scenes of his earlier days for recreation, 
his reply was brief: — " I know Great Britain from the 
Grampian Hills to the chalky Cliffs of Dover : there 
is no need of my going to Europe, Europe now comes 
to me." But I must desist. The Historical Society 
of New York will long cherish his memory foi- the 
distinction he shed over our institution, his unassuming 
manners, his kind nature, and the aid he was ever 
ready to give to all who needed his counsel. He fur- 
nished an eulogium on our deceased member the great 
jurist, Thomas Addis Emmet, also on Samuel Bard ; 
his discourse on the Botany of North and South 
America, is printed by the society in their Collections. 
Mitchill has not unjustly been pronounced the Nestor 
of American science. 

The claims of Edward Miller to your remembrance 
are associated with those of his brother Samuel. Ed- 
ward Miller, learned and accomplished as a scholar, 
generous and humane as a physician, urbane and refined 
as a gentleman, was of that order of intellect that could 
at once see the relationship which such a society as this 
holds with philosophy, and the record of those occur- 
rences on which philosophy is founded. That he aided 
his reverend brother in that portion of the " Brief 
Retrospect " which treats of science in general, and of 
medicine in particular, was often admitted by the gifted 
divine. I have in strong recollection the enthusiastic 
terms in which Dr. Edward Miller spoke of our organi- 
zation at the memorable anniversary in 1809 ; and all 
versed in our medical annals can give none other than 
approbation of his professional writings, though they 
may maintain widely different opinions from some in- 
culcated by other observers. He survived the com- 



61 

mencement of the society hut a few years, dyiug in 
March, 1812. I accompanied him, in consultation, in 
the hist professional visit he made, in a case of pneu- 
monia, a few weeks before his death. In the sick room 
he was a cordial for affliction. His biography was 
written by his brother, and a memoir of his life may 
be found in the American Medical and Philosophical 
Register, vol. third. 

I will close the record of our friends belonging to 
the medical faculty, with a brief notice of two other 
members, Hugh Williamson and Nicholas Komayne ; 
the former by birth a Pennsylvanian, born in 1735, the 
latter a native, born in the city of New York 1756. 
After the acquisition of sound preliminary knowledge, 
Williamson was graduated M.D. at the University of 
Utrecht, Holland. He practised physic but a short 
time in Philadelphia, on account of delicate health. 
In 1769 he was appointed chairman of a committee 
consisting of Rittenhouse, Ewing, Smith, the provost, 
and Charles Thompson, afterwards secretary to Con- 
gress, all mathematicians and astronomers, to observe 
the transit of Venus in 1769. He published an Essay 
on Comets, afterwards enlarged, and printed in the 
Transactions of the Literary and Philosophical Society 
of New York. By appointment with Dr. Ewing, 
he made a tour in Great Britain in 1773, for the 
benefit of a literary institution. He w^rote on the 
Gmynotius electricus, and upon his return to North Car- 
olina was an active agent in the promotion of inocu- 
lation, and finally received a commission as head of the 
medical staff of the American army of that State. In 
1782 he took his seat as a representative of Edenton in 
the House of Commons of North Carolina. In 1786 he 



62 

was one of the few members who were sent to Anna- 
polis on the amendment of the constitution, and in 1 789 
we find him in New York, and in the first Congress, 
when the constitution was carried into efiect. He wrote 
an octavo vohime on the climate of America. In 1812 
appeared his History of North Carolina. He was the 
author of several papers on medical and philosophical 
subjects, and on the canal policy of the state, printed 
in the American Medical and Philosophical Register. 
He was among the first of our citizens who entertained 
correct views on the practicability of the union of the 
waters of the Hudson and Lake Erie. He penned the 
first summons for the formation of the Literary and 
Philosophical Society of New York. He died in 1819, 
at the advanced age of 83 years. 

The career of Williamson is well known from the 
ample Biography of his friend and physician. Dr. 
Hosack. He was justly esteemed for his talents, his 
virtues, and his juiblic services. Hosack affirmed on the 
testimony of Bishop White, John Adams, President of 
the United States, Gen. Reed, and John Williamson, 
that Hugh Williamson was the individual who, by 
an ini^enious device, obtained the famous Hutchinson 
and Oliver letters from the British foreign office for 
Franklin, and I can add that John Williamson, the 
brother of the doctor, communicated to me his concur- 
rence in the same testimony. This curious relation is 
however rejected as not well founded, by our eminent 
historians. Sparks and Bancroft. 

Williamson was a peculiarity in appearance, in man- 
ners, and in address. Tall and slender in person, with 
an erect gait, he perambulated the streets with the air 
of a man of consideration ; his long arms and his long- 



63 

er cane preceding him at commanding distance, and 
seemingly guided by his conspicuous nose, while his 
ample white locks gave tokens of years and wisdom. 
Activity of mind and body blessed him to the last of 
his long life. His speech was brief, sententious, and 
emphatic. He was often aphoristic, always pertina- 
cious in opinion. There was rarely an appeal from his 
decision — he was generally so well fortified. He had 
great reverence for the past, w^as anecdotical in our 
revolutionary matters, and cherished with almost 
reverential regard the series of cocked hats which he 
had worn at different times, during the eight years' 
crisis of his country. His History of North Carolina 
has encountered the disapprobation of many, and is 
deemed defective and erroneous, yet he was a devoted 
disciple of truth. No flattery, no compliment would 
ever reach his ear. Witness his curt correspondence 
with the Italian artist, Carrachi : look at his testimony 
in the case of Alexander Whisteloe. To a solicitation 
for pecuniary aid in behalf of an individual whose moral 
character he somewhat doubted, when told that a re- 
form had taken place : " Not so," rei3lied the doctor, 
" he has not left the stage, — the stage has left him." His 
punctuality in engagements was marvellous ; no hour, 
no wind or weather, ever occasioned a disappointment on 
the part of the old man, now over eighty years of age ; 
and in his own business transactions, of which from va- 
rious incomes he derived his ample support, one might 
apprehend the requirement of much time, he let not the 
setting sun close upon him without their entire adjust- 
ment. He died, if I remember rightly, about the hour 
of 4 o'clock of the afternoon, while in a carriage excur- 
sion to the country, from excessive solar heat, in June ; 



64 

yet it was found that his multifarious accounts and 
correspondence had all been adjusted, up to the hour 
of two on that same day. 

Some of my most gratifying hours in early life wei'e 
passed with this venerable man : it was instructive to 
enjoy the conversation of one who had enriched the 
pages of the Royal Society ; who had experimented 
with John Hunter, and Franklin, and Ingenhouze in 
London, and had enjoyed the soirees of Sir John 
Pringle ; who narrated occurrences in which he bore a 
part when Franklin was Postmaster, and in those of 
subsequent critical times ; one, who, if you asked him 
the size of tlie button on Washington's coat, might tell 
you who had been his tailor. A more strictly correct 
man, in all fiscal matters, could not be pointed out, 
whether in bonds and mortgages, or in the payment of 
the postage of a letter. I will give an illustration. 
He had been appointed in Colonial times to obtain 
funds for the Seminary at Baskenridge, N. J. : he set 
out on his eastern tour, j^rovided with an extra pair of 
gloves, for which he paid Is. and Qd. : on his return 
he revisited the store in Newark, where he had made 
the purchase, had the soiled gloves vamped anew, and 
parted with them for lo-s. In his items of expenditure, 
he reports Is. and Qd. for the use of gloves, investing 
the ii-9. with the collection fund. Such was Hugh 
AVilliamson, whose breastplate was honesty, the 
brightest in the Christian armory. If I mistake not, 
I think I once saw him smile at the trick of a jockey. 
Dr. Thacher, the author of the " Military Journal," 
tolil me he had listened to him when lie was in the 
ministry, in a sermon preached at Plymouth ; but his 
oratory was grotesque, and Rufus King the Senator, 



65 

who noticed him in our first Congress, said his elocu- 
tion })rovoked laughter. Yet he spoke to the point. 
Take him altogether, he was admirably fitted for the 
times, and conscientiously performed many deeds of 
excellence for the period in which he lived. Deference 
was paid to him by every class of citizens. He holds 
a higher regard in my estimation, than a score of 
dukes and duchesses, for he signed the Constitution of 
the United States. His Anniversary Discourse for 
1810, you have secured in your publications. The 
portrait of Dr. Williamson by Col. Trumbull, is true 
to the life and eminently suggestive. 

A monograph on Romayne would not be too much. 
He entered the Historical Society some years after its 
formation. He is associated with innumerable occur- 
rences in New York, his native city, and was born in 
1756. Of his antecedents little is satisfactorily known. 
His early instruction was received from Peter AVilson, 
the liuoruist, at his school at Hackensack. At the com- 
mencement of the war of the Revolution he repaired 
to Edinburgh, where he pre-eminently distinguished 
himself by his wide range of studies, his latinity and 
his medical knowledge. His inaugural for the doctor- 
ate, prepared unassisted, was a dissertation De Gen- 
eratione Puris, in which he seems to have first promul- 
gated the leading doctrines received on that vexed 
subject. He now visited London, Paris, and Leyden, 
for further knowledge, and returning to his native 
land, settled first in Philadelphia, and shortly after in 
New York. He had a fair chance of becoming a prac- 
titioner of extensive employment. His erudition justi- 
fied him in assuming the office of teacher, and he lec- 
tured with success on several branches of physic. He 



66 

was prononnoed an extraordinaiy man. Anatomy, 
clioniistiy, botan}', and the practice of medicine, Avere 
assumed by him. His most eminent associates, Bayley, 
Kissam, Moore, Treat, and Tillaiy, echoed his praises, 
lie sjioke with Ihiency the Freucli and Latin tongues, 
and the h^w Dutch. 

AVlieu the })rovincial government of King's College 
was changed after 1783, he was nominated one of the 
Trustees. The Board of the College, now Columl>ia, 
determined npon reviving a new faculty of medicine, 
but from causes too nnmei'ous to relate, Dr. Romayne 
was not chosen to an appointment. In 1701, an act 
was passed, authorizing the Eegents of the University 
to organize a medical faculty, which, however, did not 
go into operation until January,! 807, when Dr. Ivomayne 
was appointed President of the College of Physicians 
and Surgeons under their authority. He gave lectures 
on Anatomy and on the Institutes. I was present at his 
opening address to the students at the ensuing Novem- 
ber. It was an elegant and elaborate performance in sci- 
ence and on the ethnology of the red man of America. 
He was a j^leasing speaker ; his discourse justilied all 
that had been previously expressed concerning his 
varied knowledge and his classical taste. He would 
rise in his place and deliver a lecture on the aphorisms 
of Hippocrates, unfold the structure of the brain, ex- 
pounil the j^hilosophy of paludal diseases, or discourse 
on the plant which Clusius cherished. He was indeed 
clever in every acceptation of the word. I tind since 
that ]^eriod, by an examination of his copy of the Con- 
spectus ^Medicina.^ of Gregory, and his MS. notes, that his 
Lectures on the Institutions were drawn chiefly from 
Gregory's work. Yet was he an original observer ami 



67 

an intrepid thinker. He died suddenly, after great ex- 
posure to heat, in June, 1817. 

It rarely occurs to any individual to enjoy a larger 
renown among his fellows, than did Dr. Romayne dur- 
in^r the time he filled the slation of President of the 
Coilecre. Yet he was not content with this condition of 
afl^irs^ and was constantly studying new things, until 
ejected from his high office by the Regents of the Uni- 
versity, the venerable Samuel Bard being chcHsen as his 
successor. 

His penury in early life had taught Romayne the 
strictest economv. At Edinburf^h his wardrobe was so 
slender, that it often reminded me of the verses of an 
old ballad : — 

" The man Trho has only one shirt, 
Whenever it's wa=hed for bis cide, 
The offence b sorely not his 
If he lies in bis bed till it's dried" 

Such, literally, was the case with the student Romayne, 
and still he bore himself with becoming respectability, 
and left the Univendty one of the mfM accomplished 
of her sons in general knowledge and profefNsional 
science. He did well enough during his two years in 
Philadelphia as a practitioner : an equally favorable 
turn in business followed him in Sew York, in which 
place he settled as the British troops left the city. The 
spirit of adventure, however, seized him : he embarked 
in the scheme of Blount's conspiracy, was seized by the 
constituted authorities, and Pintard saw him conveyed 
to pjrison. In what manner his troubles were removed 
I am unable to slate. I have heard of no special dis- 
closures that he made. He was too long-headed for 
self accusation, and however bellicose by nature, pre- 



68 

feiTed his customary cautions liabit. Roniayne had 
learned the proverl) of the old Hebrews : — " One word 
is worth a shekel — silence is worth two." But awhile 
after he revisited Europe, became a licentiate of the 
Royal College of Edinburgh, returned to his native 
city, and was chosen President of the College, an insti- 
tution of only two years later date than your own, and 
which, amidst great vicissitudes and an anomalous gov- 
ernment, has enriched with meritorious disciples the 
noble art of healino;, and diffused untold blessinsfs 
throughout the land. 

Komayne Avas of huge bulk, of regular proportion, 
and of an agreeable and intelligent expression of coun- 
tenance, with a gray eye of deep penetration. It was 
almost a phenomenon to witness the liixht, orracious, and 
facile step of a man surjoassing some three hundred 
pounds in weight, and at all times assiduous in civic 
pursuits and closet studies. He was unwearied in toil, 
and of mighty energy. He was goaded by a strong 
ambition to excel in whatever he undertook, and he 
generally secured the object of his desire, at least pro- 
fessionally. He w^as temperate in all his drinks, but 
his gastric powers were of inordinate capabilities. I 
should incur your displeasure were I to record the ma- 
terial of a single meal : he sat down wdth right good 
earnest and exclusive devotion at his repast. His auri- 
cular power seemed now suspended. Dr. Mitchill long 
ago had said that the stomach had no ears. In charity 
I have conjectured that he must have labored under a 
species of bulimia, Avhich pathologists affirm will often 
pervert the moral faculties. His kind friend, the late 
Reverend Dr. M'Leod, tells us, that though many of 
his acts were crooked, yet that Romayne died in the 



69 

consolations of the Christian religion. He was gener- 
ous to the young, and ready with many resources to 
advance the student. He made a great study of man ; 
he was dexterous with legislative bodies, and at one 
period of his career was vested with almost all the 
honors the medical profession among us can bestow. 
Some of the older medical writers, whose works were 
found in the residue of the library of the late Dr. Peter 
Middleton, as well as others of the late Dr. Eomayne, 
were deposited in your library ; but of late years, I am 
sorry to say, I have not recognized them. 

I shall now take leave of the departed doctors, 
while memory cannot forget their living excellence, 
and cast a glance at some few circumstances, which, 
more or less immediate or remote, had an influence 
in fostering those associations which finally accelerat- 
ed public opinion, and led to the establishment of the 
Historical Society at the fortunate epoch at which it 
was organized. 

The extraordinary occurrences of the American 
Kevolution, which had left their impress on the minds 
of most of the patriots who had survived that mighty 
event, the peace of 1783, which closed the great 
drama, and now presented the country impoverished 
and in debt, its resources exhausted, its people rich in a 
knowledge of their rights, yet poor indeed in fiscal 
power, were circumstances calculated to awaken a per- 
sonal interest, more or less deep, in every bosom, and 
to excite inquiry, with a curious scrutiny, what history 
w^ould unfold of the marvellous trials through which 
the people had passed, and what historian would write 
the faithful record of their sufterings and their deeds. 
This city, which had been the occupancy of their 



TO 

enemies during that long struggle, though now freed 
of the British army, still retained a vast number of the 
Tory party, who, while they were ready to be the par- 
ticipators of the benefits of that freedom which sprung 
out of the Revolution, were known to be disaffected by 
the mortifications of defeat, under which they still 
writhed, and whose principal rehef was found in yield- 
ing the listening ear to any narrative that might asperse 
the purity of American devotion in the patriotic cause 
of freedom. Thus surrounded, the natives, the true 
Whigs, the rebel phalanx, so to speak, were often cir- 
cumscribed in thought and in utterance. To recount 
the specifications of tlie wrongs which they had endured, 
as cited in the immortal Declaration of Independence, 
was deemed, by the defeated and disaftected, cruel 
and unwise, so hard was it to root out the doctrines of 
colonial devotion. Here and there measures were in 
agitation, and suggestions hinted, the object of which 
was to prevent the public reading of the Declaration 
on the 4th of July ; and even so late as July, 1804, a 
turmoil arose, upon the occasion of the expressed senti- 
ments of the orator of the day, John'W. Mulligan, Esq., 
now, I believe, the oldest living graduate of Columbia 
College. 

It was in vain that appeals were made to the instruc- 
tive facts of the issues of usurpation and oppression, that 
millions of property had been wantonly destroyed by 
British hirelings and mercenary troops, that individual 
rights and possessions had been disregarded, that the 
records of churches, of institutions of learning, and the 
libraries of schools and colleges, had been consumed. 
A further glance at affairs presented the fact, that con- 
flicting and erroneous statements of the war itself, and 



n 

of the primary motives of action of its American 
leaders, were also perverted and tauntingly promulgated 
as true history by foreign writers. The champions of 
freedom were daily harassed. To be subjected to such 
a state of things, was no more noi" less than to yield to 
renev/ed degradation, and to leave the contest an im 
perfect work. In fine, the tares which had been rooted 
out were, it was apprehended, again to infest the soil, 
and liberty itself again to be endangered. 

Topics involving matters of this nature were not un- 
frequently the subjects of warm controversy. The 
people were cognizant of the ordeal through which 
they had passed. They knew there were still 
among us men of the same calibre for the hour of peril, 
as those who had proved themselves valiant indeed. 
They also recognized among us men who saw how diffi- 
cult in the future would be the pi'ocurement of authen- 
tic documents for that volume, which, in after times, 
was destined to prove a second Kevelation to man, un- 
less a proper and timely spirit was awaked by co- 
operation with living witnesses, with those who best 
knew the price of freedom by the cost of purchase, and 
who were duly apprised of the value of correct knowl- 
edse diflPased amona; a new-born nation. The blood 
that had been spilt, the lives that had been lost, the 
treasures that had been expended, were familiar truths 
of impressive force. But the memorials of a tyrannic 
government were still more ]3alpable, in the destruc- 
tion which laid waste so many places, and which en- 
compassed the city round about. And what spectator, 
however indifferent, could fail to learn by such demon- 
strations, and cherish in his bosom profitable medita- 
tions. I am speaking now, more especially, of the 



72 

scenes presented in this city. But more than this. 
New York, which throughout her whole progress has 
been faithful to constitutional law, and may examine 
with a bold front her conduct both in peace and in war, 
had furnished noble intellect and strous: muscle in the 
vast work of colonial disfranchizement. She could 
boast of patriots who now found their homes as citizens 
among us, in the residence of their choice. The Clin- 
tons, the Livingstons, the Morrises, Jays — Hamilton, 
Fish, Gates, Steuben, M'Dougal, Rufus King, Duei-, 
Ward, Williamson, Clarkson, Varick, Pendleton, and 
hundreds of others, who had done service in the times 
that tried men's souls, were now domiciliated here. 
How often have I cast a lingering look at many of 
these worthies in their movements through the public 
ways, during the earlier period of this city, with here 
and there a Continental tricornered hat over their ven- 
erable fronts, a sight no less gratifying to the beholder 
than the fras^rant wild rose scattered throusfh the 
American forest. I am not now to tell you what species 
of knowledge these men diffused among the people, and 
wliat doctrines on liberty they espoused ; versed as 
they were in the school of experience, they could utter 
nothing but wisdom. Suffice it to remark, that they 
led to that accumulation of manuscripts of revolutionary 
documents, with which your library is especially en- 
riched. 

Other circumstances urged the propriety of organ- 
izing some institution which might enhance the patri- 
otic object of a broad foundation, available for the pro- 
motion of historical knowledge. It has been demon- 
strated in numerous instances, as I have in part inti- 
mated, that the story of our Revolution, if ever hon- 



73 

estly related, must be derived from domestic sources, 
and from the informed mind of tlie country. The 
prejudice abroad which had nullified facts, as in the 
proceedings instituted to suppress the work of Dr. 
Eamsey, and cut off its circulation in Europe ; the 
war of crimination which originated from General 
Burgoyne's publications ; the difficulties which arose 
from Sir Henry Clinton's statements ; the Galhiway let- 
ters and documents, all could be cited in proof of the 
expediency. And when still further it was ascertained 
that Gordon's work, on which such strong hopes were 
fixed, arising not only from the general reputation of the 
writer, but strengthened by a knowledge of the op- 
portunities he enjoyed for information, and the labor 
and devotion he had paid to his subject; when, I re- 
mark, it was ascertained that that work was subject- 
ed to purification by British authority, because it con- 
tained aspersions (so called) on the British character, 
that it recorded too many atrocious truths to assimi- 
late well with the digestive functions of John Bull; 
further, that audacious threats were held out that, if 
published as written by the honest author, from its 
faithful representations of the acts of many of the 
renowned characters of the British army and navy, it 
would lead to libel upon libel, damages upon damages, 
and thus impoverish the writer, as truth ever so well 
grounded, even if permitted to be adduced, could not, 
according to statute, plead in mitigation, thus defeating 
that integrity at which Gordon had arrived ; facts of 
this notorious nature, comprehended even by the 
masses, could be productive of no other result than 
strengthen the general opinion that the American mind 
must be up and doing, if ever the seal of truth was to 
6 



u 

stamp her imprimatur on the history of the American 
Revolution.* 

Our friend Pintard repeatedly gave wings to these 
abuses of foreign writers, as preparatory to his move- 
ments for an historical society. He was too full of 
knowledge, both by observation and by reading, not to 
feel himself doubly armed on the subject, and your in- 
telligent Librarian, Mr. Moore, can point out to you 
how ample is your collection of volumes on the Indian, 
the French, and the Revolutionary wars, chiefly brought 
together by the zeal and research of your enlightened 
founder. 

Will you allow me now to come more closely at 
home, and offer a few remarks on the occurrences in 
our midst, which in the end swelled the tide of popu- 

* Dr. Waterhouse, ia his work on Juaius and his Letters, has very ex- 
plicitly given us a brief statement of these nefarious transactions. I quote 
from his preliminary view the following extract : " A very valuable and 
imi^ari'Mil history of the American Bei-olution was written by the Hev. 
William Gordon^ D. D., an Englishman ; who resided about twelve years 
in Massachusetts, and had access to the best authorities, including that of 
Washington, Greene, Knox, and Gates, and the journals of Congress and 
of the Legislatures of the several States. He injudiciously returned to 
England, there to print his interesting history. He deemed it prudent to 
submit his manuscript to a gentleman learned in the law, to mark such 
chapters and passages as might endanger prosecution, when the lawyer 
returned it with such a large portion exi)urgated as to reduce about four 
volumes to three. The author being too aged and too infirm to venture 
upon a voyage back to America, and too poor Avithal, he submitted to its 
publication in a mutilated state; and thus the most just and impartial his- 
tory of the American war, and of the steps that led to it, on both sides of 
tlie Atlantic, was sadly marred, and shamefully mutilated. My authority 
is from ray late venerable friend John Adams, the President of these 
United States, who perused Gordon's manuscript when he was our Minis- 
ter at tlie Court of London, and from my own knowledge, having been 
shown a considerable portion of the History before the author left this 
country to die in his own, and having corresponded with him till near the 
close of his long life." 



75 

lar feeling in behalf of your institution. " No people in 
the world," says a late lamented citizen, Herman E. 
Ludwig, can have so great an interest in the history of 
their country, as those of the United States of North 
America ; " for there are none." adds this learned Ger- 
man, " who enjoy an equally great share in their coun- 
try's historical acts." Glorious New York has, from 
the beginning of her career down to the present hour, 
ever been the theatre of thought, of action, and of re- 
sults, and so I presume she is to continue. Her ad- 
venturous character has rendered her the acknowl- 
edged pioneer of the Republic, and her thousand ex- 
amples of improved policy in municipal affairs, in build- 
ing, in domestic economy, in the several departments 
of arts and of commerce, have yielded by their adop- 
tion blessino^s untold to other cities of the Union. 
From the time of that great improvement, as it was 
called, the construction of side walks for foot passen- 
gers in the streets, only one hundred and thirty -four 
years after the streets themselves were first paved, (a 
long Rip Van Winkle torpor,) at which service we find 
Pintard struggled with the corporate authorities in 
1791-2, down to that mighty achievement, the intro- 
duction of the Croton water, by the genius of Douglass, 
she has been the exemplar for other cities of the Re- 
public, and approved by the enlightened foreigner who 
has visited our shores, from every nation. 

Common observation has repeatedly confirmed the 
fact, that the greatest and the smallest events are often 
synchronous. With the birth of the Revolution of 
France in 1789, I made my first appearance on this 
planet, and the arrival of the Ambuscade four years 
after, from the notoriety of the event and its conse- 



76 

quences, enables me to bring to feeble recollection 
many of the scenes which transpired in this city at that 
time : the popular excitement and bustle, the liberty 
cap, the entree of citizen Genet, the Red Cockade, the 
song of the carmagnole, in which with childish ambi- 
tion I united, the rencontre with the Boston frigate, 
and the commotion arising from Jay's treaty. Though 
I cannot speak earnestly from actual knowledge, we 
must all concede that these were the times when polit- 
ical strife assumed a formidalde aspect, when the press 
most flagrantly outraged individual rights and domes- 
tic peace — that the impugners of the Washington ad- 
ministration received new weapons with which to inflict 
tlieir assaults upon tried patriotism, by every arrival 
from abroad, announcing France in her progress. The 
federalists and the anti-federalists now became the 
federal and the republican party : the carmagnole sung 
every hour of every day in the sreets, and on stated 
days at the Belvidere Club House, fanned the embers 
and enkindled that zeal which caused the overthrow of 
many of the soundest principles of American freedom. 
Even the yellow fever, which from' its novelty and its 
malignancy struck terror in every bosom, and was 
rendered more lurid by the absurd preventive means 
of burning tar and tar barrels in almost every street, 
aflbrded no mitigation of party animosity, and Green- 
leaf with his Argus, Freneau with his Time Piece, and 
Cobbett with his Porcupine Gazette, increased the 
consternation which only added to the inquietude of 
the peaceable citizen who had often reasoned within 
himself, that a seven years' carnage, through which he 
liad passed, had been enough for one life. The arro- 
gance of party-leaders was alike acrimonious toward 



77 

their opponents, and reasoning on every side seemed 
equally nugatoi-y. Nor could Tammany, ostensibly 
the patron saint of aboriginal antiquities, calm the 
multitudinous waves of faction, though her public 
processions were decorated with the insignia of the 
calumet, and the song of peace was chanted in untold 
strains accompanied by the Goddess of Liberty, with 
discolored countenance and Indian trappings, and 
patriotic citizens, such as Josiah Ogden Hoffman, 
Cadwallader D. Golden and William Moone}^, as 
sachems, with many others, followed in her train. 

I have not the rashness to invade the chair on which 
is seated with so much national benefit and renown the 
historian Bancroft, nor approach the sphere of the his- 
torical orator of the nation, Edward Everett ; still, as 
your association is historical in all its aims, I shall pre- 
sent a few additional circumstances which signalized 
the spirit of those memorable times in New York. 
Much I saw — much has been told me by the old inhab- 
itants, now departed. When the entire American 
nation, nay, when the civilized world at large seemed 
electrified by the outbreak of the revolution of France, 
it necessarily followed, as the shadow does the sub- 
stance, that the American soul, never derelict, could 
not but enkindle with patriotic warmth at the cause 
of that people whose loftiest desire was freedom ; 
of that people who themselves had, with profuse appro- 
priation, enabled that very bosom, in the moment of 
hardest trial, to inhale the air of liberty. Successive 
events had now dethroned the monarchy of France, and 
the democratic spirit was now evolved in its fullest ele- 
ment. It was not surprising that the experienced and 
the sober champions who had effected the great revo- 



78 

lution of the Colonies should now make the cause of 
struggling France their own ; and as victors already in 
one desperate crisis, they seemed ready to enter into a 
new contest for the rights of man. The masses coa- 
lesced and co-operated. Cheering prospects of sym- 
pathy and of support were held out in the prospective 
to their former friends and benefactors abroad. Jeal- 
ousy of Britain, affection for France, was now the pre- 
vailing impulse, and the business of the day was often 
interrupted by tumultuous noises in the streets. Groups 
of sailors might be collected on the docks and at the 
shipping ready to embark on a voyage of plunder ; 
merchants and traders in detached bodies might be 
seen discussing the hazards of commerce ; the schools 
liberated from their prescribed hours of study, because 
of some fresh report of the Ambuscade or of Genet, the 
schoolmaster uttering in his dismissal a new reason for 
the study of the classics, by expounding with oracular 
dignity to his scholars, Vivat Respuhlica^ now l)roadly 
printed as the caption of the play-bill or the pamphlet 
just issued. The crew of the French frigate moored 
off Peck Slip, were now disgorged on shore, and or- 
ganizing to march in file, increased by many natives, 
bearing the liberty cap with reverence to the residence 
of the French Consul, in Water street, and thence pro- 
ceeding to the Bowling Green, patriotically to root out, 
by paving stones thrown in showers, the debris of the 
old statue of George III. The tri-color was in every 
hand or affixed to every watch-chain, while from every 
lip was vociferated the carmagnole. Meanwhile the 
two old notorious arch-tories, who had fattened on lies 
and libels, and before whose doors the procession passed, 
were snugly ensconced behind their shop counter ; 



79 

Rivington in rich purple velvet coat, full wig and cane, 
and ample frills, dealing out good stationery to bis 
customers; and Gaine, in less ostentatious costume, 
ready with religious zeal to dispose of his recent edition 
of the Book of Common Prayer to all true worshippers. 

Political clubs abounded everywhere. The frater- 
nity of the two nations was the great theme. They 
deliberated on the doctrine of Lafayette in the National 
Assembly — "When oppression renders a revolution 
necessary, insurrection is the most sacred of duties." 
The democratic principle assumed a more vigorous 
form, and the Democratic Society, the first in this city, 
and perhaps the first in the Union, was organized, with 
Henry Rutgers, an afi[luent and distinguished citizen, 
as its president. 

But the time was near at hand when this flood in 
revolutionary aflairs was about to find its ebb, so far 
as concerned the universal sympathy which America 
had cherished for struggling France. She had con- 
templated the overthrow of the monarchy, the destruc- 
tion of the privileged orders, the execution of the 
king, with more or less approval ; and, from the free- 
dom of the press, and the diftusion of knowledge, our 
citizens were perhaps as copiously enlightened in the 
transactions of Paris as most of the inhabitants of that 
capital in the midst of all its doings. But fresher and 
still more portentous intelligence now poured in among 
us. All knew that the tree of liberty had been 
planted in human blood ; yet the delights at its 
growth were sometimes checked by the means of its 
nutrition. Nor was this virtiginous state of public 
opinion long to last. Some of the hitherto most fac- 
tious and sturdy Jacobinical advocates took alarm at 



80 

the rapid march of foreign events. In the public as- 
semblies graver deliberations filled the speaker's mind, 
and the fulminations of anarchy gave way to the per- 
suasive logic of rule and right. History was now, 
indeed, teaching philosophy. So far as concerned 
the war itself, nothing abroad so effectively chilled 
the ardor of the American people as the sanguinary 
measures of Robespierre, while at home the extraor- 
dinary career of Genet increased the dissatisfaction to 
the cause of Republican France, and added to the 
anxiety which the predominance of Jacobinical princi- 
ples might occasion. 

Amidst these momentous events, others scarcely 
less alarming were seen approaching, aggravated by 
the rebellious tendencies of foreio^n interference and the 
malign career of Genet,* the lawless spirit of the times, 
and the increase of popular disaffection towards Eng- 

* I have spoken of Genet with severity : lie labors under reproacli by 
every historian who has recorded his deeds, and by none is he more cbas- 
tised than by Judge Marshall ; yet witlial, Genet possessed a kindly na- 
ture, was exuberant in speech, of lively parts, and surcharged with anec- 
dotes. His intellectual culture was considerable ; he was master of sev- 
eral living languages, a proficient in music as well as a skilful performer. 
To a remark I made to him touching his execution on the piano, he sub- 
joined : "I have given many hours daily for twelve years to this instrument, 
and now reach some effective sounds." He had a genius for mechanics, and 
after he had become an agriculturalist in this country, wrote on machinery 
and on husbandry. He assured me (in 1812) the time would arrive when 
his ofilcial conduct as minister would be cleared of its dark shades. To 
other shoulders, said he, will be transferred the odium I now bear. In a 
conversation with him on the vicissitudes and events of the French Eevo- 
lution, he said, " Their leaders were novices: had they been versed in Al- 
bany politics liutfor three months, we would have escaped many trials, 
and our patriotism been crowned with better results." It is to be regretted 
that the papers of Genet have not yet seen the light : they embrace let- 
ters from Voltaire and Eousseau, and years' correspondence of eminent 
American statesmen down to the close of his eventful life. lie died at 
Jamaica, Long Island, in 1834, aged 71 years. 



land. The appointment of Jay as minister extraordi- 
nary to Great Britain, tlie debates in Congress on the 
Treaty which he had negotiated, and the local turmoil 
which found encouragement elsewhere as well as in 
this city, are facts strongly within the memory of the 
venerable men still alive among us. As might be in- 
ferred, the provisions of the treaty were assaulted with 
the greatest vehemence by Jacobinical or democratic 
clubs, and the disciples of the most spotless of patriots 
decried in language which can scarcely find a parallel 
in the vocabulary of abuse. The disorganizing multi- 
tude, segregated in divers parts of the town, soon 
found a rallying point at the Bowling Green, opposite 
to the Government House, and signalized themselves by 
burning a copy of the Treaty amidst the wildest shrieks 
of demoniac fury, — while some of the Livingstons, 
(among whom the most grateful associations clustered 
for revolutionary services in behalf of dear America,) 
with more than thoughtless effrontery fanned the em- 
bers of discontent, and William S. Smith (a son-in-law 
of old President Adams) presided with magisterial im- 
portance at a formidable meeting of the malcontents, 
who passed resolutions deprecatory of the stipulations of 
the negotiation and of the principles and acts espoused 
by the advocates of the great measure. To give a still 
more alarming aspect to affairs, Hamilton and Bufus 
King, occupying the balcony of the City Hall, in Wall 
street, and addressing the people in accents of friend- 
ship and peace and reconciliation, were treated in 
return by showers of stones levelled at their persons 
by the exasperated mob gathered in front of that 
building. These are hard arguments to encounter, 
exclaimed the noble-hearted Hamilton. Edward Liv- 



82 

iiigston, (afterwards so celebrated for his Louisiauian 
Code,) was, I am informed, one of this violent number. 
What Washington called a counter-current, however, 
actually took place at a meeting of the old Chamber 
of Commerce, at the head of which was Comfort 
Sands, an experienced man who had been long before 
a member of the Committee of Safety in the days of 
the Liberty Boys. This important body on trade and 
commerce voted resolutions declaring their approbation 
of the treaty. But let me refer you to the history 
of that time-honored association written by Charles 
King, LL. D., for further particulars. 

I believe old Tammany was then too intent in 
effectiuix their oris-inal desif^n, with their charter before 
them, of gathering together the relics of nature, art, 
beads, wampum, tomahawks, belts, earthen jugs and 
pots, and other Indian antiquities, with all that could 
be found of Indian literature in war songs, and in 
hieroglyphical barks, to take any special movement in 
this crisis of public solicitude for the safety of the 
Union. Tammany, to her honor, adhered together by 
a strong conservative Americanism, and stood aloof 
from the influence of foreio:n contamination. That 
these assertions are founded on more than conjecture, 
is deducible from contemporaneous events. One of 
the beloved idols among their members, was the 
erudite Dr. Samuel Latham Mitchill. Early after the 
organization of the society, he discoursed before the 
Society of Black Friars, on the character of St. Tam- 
many, the Incas of Peru, and the benignant aspect of 
our Republic. Nothing had reference to our domestic 
trials. Still later, at a season of much agitation among 
us, as Sachem, in another address on the Red Man of 



83 

the New World, lie congratulated the menibers on tlieir 
patron saint, with the hope that their squaws and 
papooses were all well. 

Public opinion, as I have already intimated, had 
become somewhat doubtful as to the wisdom which 
marked the French revolution. Many, once seemingly 
secure in the light of nature alone, now felt themselves 
led into a delusion, the results of which threatened 
more than temporal inconvenience. The middle and 
the best classes of society, the responsible citizen, who 
had at one time fraternized with these apostles of liber- 
ty, now foresaw that certain doctrines engrafted on and 
interwoven with the political dogmas of the day, were 
more serious in their intent than avowed, and pene- 
trated deeper into the inward parts than the stripes of 
partisan leaders and the acts of military chieftains. 
Equivocation only rendered more noxious the skepti- 
cism which was too prominently rearing its head. Few 
were so blind as not to see that infidelity, wrapt in the 
mantle of the sovereign rights of the people, indulged 
the hope of her triumphant establishment, and the 
downfall of the strongest pillars of the Christian 
faith. 

As the darkness which had shrouded the actual 
state of things broke away, new light shone upon the 
conduct of the revolutionists. A devouter feeling was 
in progress, and circumstances were better compre- 
hended. The Gospel of charity, of peace, and of good 
will to all men, it was safely inferred, was not to 
be advanced by existing transactions, nor its dignity 
elucidated with advantage by the foulest blasphemies. 
It was further seen that the pestilential exhalations of 
Paris had not merely polluted all France, but that 



84 

they liad widely diffused themselves throughout the 
Continent ; that Germany had her IHuminati ; that 
England breathed the noxious vapor with spasmodic 
vehemence ; that Scotland was tainted ; that Ireland 
was ready for a change of elemental life. 

Enough had now transpired abroad to awaken 
alarm at home. New York, which, to her everlasting 
honor be it said, had been founded and reared under 
her original settlers, the Dutch, and with the exception 
of some slight misrule on the part of her English 
masters (see our faithful and distinguished historian 
Brodhead *), had uniformly sustained religious tolera- 
tion down to the present moment ; New York, which 
had with the nobleness of freemen looked with sym- 
pathizing eyes on revolutionary France in her incipient 
warfare on behalf of a persecuted and trodden-down 
nation, could no longer continue incredulous as to the 
mischief and abuse which afflicted others, nor skeptical 
as to the disorder and moral deo-radation which threat- 
enecl even her own domestic fireside. 

" A change came o'er the spirit of her dream." 

I have said already that her revolutionary heroes 
wavered in their hopes that our people v/ere swayed 
by anticipated benefits ; that the political clubs took 
alarm; that, in short, among men of all orders and 
professions. Doubting Castle stood before them. 
Liberty, the attractive goddess, once decoi-ated in her 
robes of resplendent purity, was now transformed into 
an hideous monstrosity. The professing Christians 

* History of the State of New York : by John Eomeyn Brodhead. 
First period 1609-1664. New York: Harper & Brothers, 8vo., 1853. 



85 

stood aghast when they learned that abroad every 
tenth day was appointed for the Sabbath ; that death 
was pronounced an eternal sleep : that it was resolved 
by the Corresponding Society of Paris that the belief 
of a God was so pernicious an opinion, as to be an 
exception to the general principle of toleration. The 
clergy, with us, could no longer withstand these atro- 
cious sentiments. " Better," said they, " abandon the 
cause of liberty, once so dear to our humanity, than 
adhere to it at such a sacrilegious cost. Better aban- 
don France than abandon our God." The balance was 
struck, and many of that exalted order of men who 
had been the advocates of the revolution, were now 
turned and became its most implacable enemies. 
William Linn, of the Collegiate Dutch Church, an 
eminent divine and accomplished preacher, was of the 
number of the converts. He had published the Signs 
of the Times in behalf of Liberty and France ; his 
troul)led bosom now gave relief to itself by his Dis- 
course on National Sins. The Voice of Warninir, a 
powerful Discourse by a popular man, John M 
Mason, was also widely circulated. The party feuds 
which had annoyed real believers of different denomi- 
nations on such points as adult and psedo-baptism, on 
certain rituals, on ordination and the like, and which 
had hitherto been the only obstacle to the moi-e earn- 
est and greater extension of religious conformity by 
the clergy of different sects, were apprehended now as 
merely nothing, in comparison to the evils which 
seemed impending. The tranquillity of the whole 
clei'ical body stood on the borders of destruction. 
The prelacy was alarmed, and the so called dissenters 
of every faith were ill at ease. They had felt the 



86 

wliirlwincl, they now dreaded the storm. The wolf 
threatened to destroy both the shepherd and his flock. 
The pulpit, so often and so effectively the means of 
relief of private sorrow, now waged uncompromising 
war with her thunderbolts from heaven, to rescue that 
only precious book, as Mason called the Bible, from 
the consuming influence of atheism. 

I am not to measure the extent of the benefits con- 
ferred by the ministry at that dark time when ominous 
formalities in the streets awakened the public gaze, 
when the ears were distracted by terrible blasphemy, 
and folly and infidelity had reached their climax ; but 
when I know that that majestic father of theology, Dr. 
Livingston, of the Dutch Reformed Church, Dr. Rodgers 
and Dr. John M. Mason, of the Presbyterian commu- 
nity, that learned dignitary of the Episcopate, Bishop 
Provoost; John Foster, of the Baptists ; Francis Asbury, 
of the Methodists, and Kunze of the German Lutheran 
Church, were of the number, and were enumerated 
among the best of men who encountered the times and 
openly declared their faith, in order to rescue the 
people from themselves; I feel bound to infer that 
some of the lepers must have been cleansed. That 
eyesight was not received l)y all, and the scoflers not 
altogether silenced, the history of that period gives us 
painful proofs. That you may understand me the 
better, I will weary your patience a moment longer 
with a few circumstances which fell under the observa- 
tion of every attentive person at that period. Nor 
will you accuse me of invective while I recite the 
story. 

I believe it is set down as a political axiom that 
war is not conducive to the progress of religious belief. 



Be this as it may, our revolutionary contest iu its 
wide-spread desolation had left the institutions of 
learning and of theology encompassed with perils and 
in the lowest temporal condition. Time was requisite 
to restore their ability and their influence ; and eccle- 
siastical affairs necessarily halted in their march, from 
the penury which pervaded the country and the over- 
burdened cares of a people, full of gratitude at their 
liberation from the yoke of tyranny, yet hardly ready 
to summon the requisite means for such important 
and grave ends. In the meanwhile, the conclusion 
must be made that a sprinkling of philosophical belief, 
in contradistinction to that of religious, had here and 
there penetrated the public mind and entered the soil 
of lil)erty, derived from the already scattered circula- 
tion of the writings of Voltaire, Helvetius, Rousseau, 
and the Encyclopaedists. But the land was doomed 
to be still deeper impregnated and the dwellers thereon 
to partake in larger bounty of the products of a new 
husbandry, the fruits of a new revelation, in the en- 
joyment of which nature, rejecting absurdities and 
rejoicing in a higher knowledge, would understand her 
own powers and assert her inherent dignity. The 
work was therefore not entirely abortive, when, upon 
the arrival of the Ambuscade within our waters, was 
also brought that material which constructed the 
Temple of Reason and led numerous worshippers to 
her shrine. The Theophilanthropists reared their 
heads, and Deistical Clubs were in formative operation. 
However repellent to the doctrines of a religion which, 
with uprightness of intention and the deepest convic- 
tion, the people at large maintained in conscious purity ; 
however antagonistic to that faith which they had in 



88 

infancy been tauglit and in riper years cherish ed as 
their greatest blessing, their allegiance to the God of 
their fathers was nevertheless in many instances neu- 
tralized by the poison they imbibed, and in many 
cases broken asunder by pretexts of superior enlight- 
enment — a more tenable rationality, the pride of in- 
tellect. That these philosophical teachers well com- 
prehended the avenues of triumph over the human 
heart, is now understood better than in the days of 
their active labors. At that period of our city's 
growth, scholastic knowledge was but sparingly dif- 
fused among us, and the manageable multitude were 
easily led captive by the dexterity of Jacobinical in- 
structors, who knew how to accommodate their lessons 
to the affections of the unenlightened and untaught. 
Besides which, liberty and the rights of man were so 
insidiously interwoven with the fallacies of skepticism, 
that while the former vouchsafed the dearest privi- 
leges, the latter was so masked that numbers unawares 
were indoctrinated and became the disciples of the 
theistical school. These clandestine movements were 
not without their consequences in other sections of the 
State, more especially at and about Newburgh, in the 
county of Orange. That county had been known as 
the residence of a fierce democracy for some time. It 
was patriotic in revolutionary times, and its political 
sentiments generally ran high. It was destined after- 
wards to become the scene of the Druidical Society, 
for so the free-thinkei-s nominated their fraternity. 
They feigned the principles of the Illuminati and of 
the Jacobin Clubs. They alternately conducted their 
public worship in New York and at Newburgh ; and 
at this latter place I have assurances that the typical 



89 

symbols of Christianity were sometimes outrageously 
profaned. 

I might mention the names of several of the lead- 
ing officials of this confederacy, were this the occasion, 
— with a number of them I afterwards became well 
acquainted in my professional life. There vrere talents 
and knowledge among them, and an ardent thirst for 
liberty : they had warm hearts, strong affections, but 
lacked the conservative and wholesome principles on 
which a republic must depend for its prosperity and 
duration. I would draw a veil over the ciosino' scenes 
of some of their lives. How often we behold a mys- 
tery ! The county which had given to Noah Webster 
the school-house in which he first imparted juvenile 
knowledge, and where he first concocted the famous 
Spelling-book which has since given instruction and 
morality to millions of the youth of both sexes of this 
nation, became in the progress of events the patron of 
a society whose every act seemed destined to de- 
molish those very principles on which both liberty and 
life depend. 

In the midst of these commotions, certain presses 
were not tardy in the diffusion of works favoring the 
great designs of infidelity : Condorcet and Volney, 
Tindall and Boulanger, became accessible in libraries 
and circulated widely by purchase. But no work had 
a demand for readers at all comparable to that of 
Paine, and it is a fact almost incredible that the Age 
of Reason, on its first appearance in this city, was 
printed as an orthodox book, by orthodox publishers, 
of a house of orthodox faith, doubtless deceived by the 
vast renown which the author of Common Sense had 
obtained, and the prospects of sale : acting on the prin- 
7 



90 

ciple given in tbe Cyclopoedia, in its definition of a 
good book, in booksellers' language, " one that sells 
well." The same publishers, however, made early- 
atonement for their bibliographical error, in their 
immense circulation of Watson's Apology. 

We had in those days other commotions touching 
articles of belief of another order of delusion. I mean 
the promulgation of the rhapsodies of Richard Brothers, 
who affirmed he had received a special gift, and wko 
in England had aroused attention by his revelations 
and prophetic visions not altogether unlike those of 
the Millerites of the other day in this metropolis. 
David Austin, of New Jersey, came hither to our relief, 
and occupying a prominent pulpit denounced Brothers 
as a deceiver, imparting his own learned disquisitions 
on tlie millennium ; while Townley, a worthy man and 
laborious expositor, the last in the city of that denomi- 
nation of preachers of the old Oliver Cromwell belief, 
in a neigliboring edifice was expounding the " unsearch- 
able riches," and demonstrating the decrees of infinite 
wisdom by enlightening his audience with a burning 
candle on his desk, in which I observed he protruded 
his medial finger in order to elucidate that passage of 
holv writ, " when thou walkest in the fire, thou shalt 
not be consumed, and the flame shall not burn thee." 

The great instrument in the promotion of deistical 
doctrines during that singular period in New York, 
was Elihu Palmer, a speaker of much earnestness, 
whose pulmonary apparatus gave force to a deep, 
sonorous and emphatic utterance. He was a native of 
Connecticut, born in 1763, was graduated at Dartmouth 
College, brought up a Congregationalist — assumed the 
ministry, but after a short period was suddenly trans- 



91 

formed into a Deist. In liis study he was reading the 
psalm, translated by Watts, " Lord, I am vile, con- 
ceived in sin." He doubted, he denied the declaration ; 
he abandoned preaching. Riker, in his valuable 
Annals of Newtown, gives an interesting detail of the 
circumstances. Palmer proceeded to Philadelphia for 
the purpose of the study and practice of the law, took 
the yellow fever of 1793, became totally blind, and 
gave up his law pursuits. He now in right earnestness 
assumed the function of a deistical preacher in this city, 
in 1796. He died in Philadelphia of pleuiisy, in the 
winter of 1805 or 1806. In what manner he added to 
the stores of liis wisdom after his loss of sight, I know 
not ; but must infer that his associate followers became 
in turns readers to him. His information, from early 
inquiry and a strong love of knowledge, with the 
means referred to, secured to him the title of a man of 
parts ; such was the general reputation he bore. I 
have more than once listened to Palmer ; none could 
be weary within the sound of his voice ; his diction 
was classical, and much of his natural theology attrac- 
tive by variety of illustration. But admiration oi'ten 
sunk into despondency at his assumption, and his sarcas- 
tic assaults on things most holy. His boldest philippic 
was his discourse on the title page of the Bible, in 
which, with the double shield of jacobinism and infi- 
delity, he warned rising America against confidence in 
a book authorized by the monarchy of England, and 
inveighed against royalty and the treacherous James, 
with at least equal zeal as did that sensualist issue his 
Counterblast as^ainst the most innocent recreation that 
falls within the scope of weary mortals. Palmer deliv- 
ered his sermons in the Union Hotel, in William street. 



92 

His audience was composed of a large body of tlie 
free-tbiukers of that day His Principles of Nature, 
a 12rao, was reprinted in London about the time of the 
Thistlewood riots. Palmer's strongest personal friends 
were John Fellowes, an author of some volumes ; 
Rose, an unfortunate lawyer ; Taylor, a philanthi'opist, 
and Charles Christian. 

During the later years of his pastoral functions, 
as he called them, he was aided by a co-laborer in 
another part of the city, of physical proportions even 
more stately, of still more daring speech, whose voice 
was as the surge of miglity billows, whose jacobinism 
was, if possible, still fiercer ; I allude to John Foster: 
I have heard many speakers, l)ut none whose voice 
ever equalled the volume of Foster's. It flowed with 
delicious ease, and yet penetrated every where. He 
besides was favored with a noble presence. Points of 
diflerence existed in their theological dogmas, yet they 
had the same ends in view ; radicalism and the spread 
of the Jacobinical element. Foster's exordium con- 
sisted generally in an invocation to the goddess of 
liberty, now unshackled, who inhaled nutrition from 
heaven, seated on her thi'one of more than Alpine 
heiorhts. Palmer and Foster called each other brother, 
and the fraternity was most cordial. I have some- 
times thought, could we find more frequently the 
same strenuous eflbrts as these men employed, called 
into action by that exalted order of persons whose aim 
is the diffiision of evangelical truth, we should also find 
a wider extension of the gospel dispensation. Methinks 
there is a deficiency somewhere : 

" 'Tis of ourselves that we are thus or thus : 
Our bodies are our gardens, to the which 
Our minds are gardeners." 



93 

But tbe pi'ogramme of our theological warfare in 
those remarkable times is not yet complete. While 
these scenes were enacting, there were other establish- 
ments not idle. The society of friends, peaceable as 
from the be^innincir, held their service in the Pearl 
street and Liberty street meeting-houses ; not as yet 
disturbed by the innovations on primitive Barclay, 
introduced by Elias Hicks, an able preacher of strong 
reasoning powers, and which subsequently agitated 
that religious community from the city of their A meri- 
can origin through various states of the Union ; yet, in 
the end, unavailable to suppress that inward comfort 
(as Penn calls it) " which leads the soul to silent con- 
verse with heaven, and prompts to acts of beneficence 
for sufferinof mortals." 

The Universalists, with Edward Mitchell and 
William Palmer, though circumscribed in fiscal means, 
nevertheless drew together a most respectable body of 
believers to their house of worship in Magazine street. 
They were both men of eloquence and good pleaders 
in behalf of their tenets, and had large auditories. 
Occasioually they were sustained in the work of their 
conviction by the preaching of John Murray, an 
Englishman by birth, whose casual absence from his 
people in Massachusetts enabled him to gratify the 
disci})les of their creed in New York. Murray had a 
rival of a like name to his own, of the Calvinistic 
faith, a man of sound erudition and rhetorical ^^owers, 
and in contradistinction they were designated by the 
sobriquet Salvation and Damnation Murray. These 
men moved together so harmoniously, that they often 
alternately occupied the same pulpit, on the same day, 
in New England. The Universalist, little John Murray, 



94 

bad much of the primitive about him ; his rich humil- 
ity, his grave accent, and his commentaries on the 
divine love, won him distinction from every discourse. 
None couk] withhold a kindly approbation. He 
seemed to me always to be charged with tracts on 
benevolence, and distributing a periodical called the 
Berean, or Scripture Searcher. He called himself a 
Berean. 

The doctrines of the Universalists had been enter- 
tained and promulgated in New York and elsewhere 
among Americans, long prior to the time of the public 
discourses of Mitchell and Palmer. Chauncey's book 
had been read by thousands ; William Pitt Smith, a 
doctor of physic, and a })rofessor of materia medica in 
Columbia College, in this city, had published his Letters 
of Amyntor; Winchester's Lectures on Universal Resto- 
ration and on the Prophecies, had been circulated with 
a strong i-ecommendatory letter in their belief from 
the pen of Dr. Rush ; and Huntington's Calvinism 
Improved, or the Gospel Illustrated as a System of 
Real Grace issuing in the Salvation of all Men, had 
gained much notoriety from the peculiar circumstances 
which accompanied its publication as a posthumous 
work, and the able reply to it by the celebrated Dr. 
Sti'ong, of Hartford. We moreover had a slender 
volume on the same toj)ic from a medical prescriber in 
this city, by the name of Young. Seed therefore had 
been sown broadcast, ere Mitchell had mounted the 
pulpit. Nevertheless, the Universalists may look back 
with equal emotions of gratitude at the labors of 
Mitchell and Palmer for a series of years in their 
service, begun some fifty years ago, while their society 
was in its infancy, as at the present day they hail their 



^ 



95 

accomplisbecl orator, Dr. Chapin, as their ecclesiastical 
leader. 

What a beautiful and instructive example of 
toleration is set forth in this brief history of forms of 
belief ! 

I had the opportunity, in the Magazine street church, 
of listening to a discourse full of personal observation 
and reminiscences, from the lips of Stewart, the Walking 
Philosopher, as the books call him ; a man of altitude, 
whose inferior limbs provided him with peculiar facili- 
ties to visit almost every part of the earth as a pedes- 
trian, before we had railways, and who enlightened his 
audience with descriptive touches of Egypt and her 
pyramids, of Nova Zembla, "and the Lord knows 
where." I shall never forget his unostentatious, though 
impressive appearance ; his lank figure, his long neck, 
his long nose, his wide mouth, and his broad white hat. 

There is one other subject I must place within the 
background of this picture of past times, and that is 
street preaching. The older inhabitants tell us we had 
much of it in the earlier condition of this city, shortly 
after the inauguration of the first President of the 
United States. I remember w^ell repeated examples of 
this sort of edification in the public ways. I shall 
specify but one, and that was to be found in the person 
of Lorenzo Dow. Dow was a Wesleyau, of rare 
courage and determined zeal. He scarcely ever pre- 
sented himself without drawing together large multi- 
tudes of hearers, in part owing to his grotesque appear- 
ance, but not a little arising from his dexterous elocu- 
tion and his prompt vocabulaiy. He was faithful to 
his mission, and a benefactor to Methodism in that 
day. His weapons against Beelzebub were providential 



96 

interpositions, wondrous disasters, touching sentiments, 
miraculous escapes, something after the method of John 
Bunyan. His religious zeal armed him with Christian 
forbearance, while his convictions allowed him a justi- 
fiable use of the strongest flagellations for besetting 
sins. Sometimes you were angered by his colloquial 
vulgarity ; but he never descended so low as Hunting- 
ton, the sinner saved, the blasphemous coal-heaver of 
England. He was rather a coarse edition on brown 
paper, with battered type, of Rowland Hill. Like 
the disciplined histrionic performer, he often adjusted 
himself to adventitious circumstances ; in his field ex- 
ercises, at camp meetings, and the like, a raging storm 
might be the forerunner of God's immediate wrath ; a 
change of element might betoken Paradise restored, or 
a new Jerusalem. He had genius at all times to con- 
struct a catastrophe. His apparent sincerity and his 
indubitable earnestness sustained and carried him on- 
ward, while many ran to and fro. Repartee, humor, 
wit, irony, were a portion of his stock in trade, the 
materials he adroitly managed. Sometimes he was 
redundant in love and the afifections, at other times 
acrimonious and condemnatory. Altogether Lorenzo 
was an original, and a self-sustained man, and would 
handle more than the rhetorician's tools. His appear- 
ance must have occasionally proved a drawback to his 
argument, but he was resolute and heroic. His gar- 
ments, like his person, seemed to have little to do with 
the detersive influence of cleanliness. With dishevel- 
led locks of black flowing hair over his shoulders, like 
Edward Irving of many tongues, and a fiice which, 
like the fashion of our own day, rarely ever knew a 
razor, his piercing gray eyes of rapid mobility, infil- 



97 

trated with a glabrous moisture, rolled with a keen 
perceptioij, and was the frequent index of his mental 
armory. I have implied that he was always ready at 
a rejoinder ; an instance or two may be given : A 
dissenter from Dow's Arminian doctrines, after listen- 
ing to his harangue, asked him if he knew what 
Calvinism was ? " Yes," he promptly replied: — 

' You can and you can't, 

You will and you won't ; 
You'll be damned if you do, 

And you'll be damned if you don't.' 

That, sir, is Calvinism, something more than rhyme." 
I, who have rarely left New York for a day during the 
past fifty years, was in the summer of 1824 at Utica 
with an invalid patient. It so happened that Dow, at 
that very time, held forth in an adjacent wood, having 
for his audience some of the Oneida and Eeservation 
Indians, together with a vast assemblage of the people 
of Utica and the neighboring villages. Mounted on an 
advantageous scaffolding, he discoursed on the rewards 
of a good life and pictured the blessings of heaven. 
Upon his return to the hotel there wrs found among 
the occupants a Mr. Branch and old General Root, so 
familiarly known for the opprobrious name of "the 
Bio- Ditch," wdiich he 2:ave to Clinton's Canal. These 
two gentlemen addressed Dow, told him they had 
heard him say much of heaven, and now begged to ask 
him if he would describe the place. " Yes," says Dow, 
with entire ease. " Heaven is a wide and exj^ansive 
region, a beautiful plain, something like our prairie 
country — without any thing to obstruct the vision — 
there is neither Root nor Branch there." Dow had one 



98 

great requisite for a preacher ; he feared no man. Tliere 
were but two houses of pubUc worship of the Methodist 
Society when I first heard him, the first erected in 
John Street, with old Peter WilUams, the tobacconist, 
as sexton. The ohl nej^ro was then strivino' to sustain 
a rival opposition in the tobacco line, with the famous 
house of the Lorillards. The other meetins^-house 
was in Second, now Forsyth street. In this latter I 
have listened to Dow from the pulpit, with his wife 
Peggy near him, a functionary of equally attractive 
personal charms. A reciprocal union of heads and 
hearts seemed to bind them together. AVe are not to 
forget that Moorsfield was mad when Lorenzo Dow 
was an itinerant spiritual instructor with us ; and who 
shall now estimate the advance of that vast denomina- 
tion of Christians from that period, with the solitary 
and starveling magazine of William Phoebus as the 
exponent of its doctrines, up to its present commanding 
condition, with the venerable names of Hedding, Fisk, 
Durbin, Olin, Simpson and Stevens, among its recorded 
apostles, with its rich and affluent periodical literature, 
its well-endowed schools and colleges, its myriad of 
churches, its soul-sustaining melodious hymns, its as- 
tounding Book Concern, with its historian Bangs, and 
its erudite M'Cliatock among its great theological pro- 
fessors and authors. 

If ray memory fails me not, in the month of May, 
1819, arrived in this city William Ellery Channing, 
with a coadjutor, both distinguished preachers of the 
Unitarian persuasion, of Boston. They were solicitous 
to procure a suitable place of worship. They made 
application at churches of difterent denominations of 
religious belief, to be accommodated at the interme- 



99 

diate hours between tlie morning and afternoon service, 
but in vain. They next urged their request at several 
of the public charities where convenient apartments 
might be found, but with the same result. Like the 
two saints in Baucis and Philemon — 

" Tried every tone might pity win, 
But not a soul would let them in." 

Still not wholly disheartened, a communication 
was received from them, through a committee, ad- 
dressed to the trustees of the College of Physicians 
and Surgeons, then in Barclay street. The Board was 
fortliwitli sunamoned, and the special business of the 
meeting fully discussed, but with some warmth of 
feelinir. This communication read as follows : — 

''May 11, 1819. 
" To David Hosack, M. D. 

" Sir : — It may be known to you that there are individuals in this 
city who have been accustomed to receive religious instruction from 
pastors who are not associated with the regular clergy of this place. 
Some of those gentlemen would be gratified to have it in their power 
to improve the opportunities for a continuance of this instruction, which 
are occasionally afforded by the temporary visits of the clergy of their 
acquaintance to this city. 

" The subscribers would, on this occasion, particularly mention that 
the Rev. Wm. E. Channing, of Boston, is expected to pass the next 
Sunday with his friends in New York. 

"Emboldened by a consciousness of the liberality which distinguishes 
your enlightened profession, they take the liberty to desire you to lay 
before the Board of the Medical College their request, that the lecture- 
room of that institution may be used for the purposes above alluded to. 
They would confine their request for the present, to the use of the room 
on the next Sunday, but would venture to suggest tbat there may pro- 
bably be future occasions when a repetition of the favor now asked, 
would be gratefully received, and in such case they would be happy to 



100 

comply with any terms as to compensation wliich the College may deem 

proper. 

We are, Sir, with great respect. 

Your obedient servants, 

I. G. Pearson. 

n. D. Sedgwick. 

H. D. Sewall. 
New York, May 10, 1819." 

"Proceedings of the College. 

"Letter from I. G. Pearson, H. D. Sedgwick, and Henry D. Sewall, 
was read : 

" Piesolved, That this College grant permission to the Rev. W. E. 
Channing, of Boston, to perform divine service in the Hall of this Univer- 
sity on the ensuing Sunday, as requested in the above communication. 

" The Registrar of the college, John W. Francis, was authorized to 
furnish a copy of said resolution to said committee, duly signed by the 
President of the Board and the Registrar." 

On the following Sabbath, Dr. Channing entered 
the professorial desk of the larger lecture-room, and 
delivered, in his mellowed accents, a discourse to a 
crowded audience, among whom were his associate 
brother preacher, and several professors of the college. 
But two or three days had transpired, from the occur- 
rence of this first preaching of Unitarianism, before it 
was loudly spoken of, and in terms of disapprobation 
not the mildest. The censure on such a pernicious 
toleration came strongest from the Presbyterian order 
of clergy. 1 heard but one prominent Episcopalian 
condemn the whole aftair, but that condemnation was 
in emphatic j)hraseology. There doubtless were others. 
Inquiries were made what individuals had constituted 
the meeting ; and as a majority happened to be the 
professors of the college, they were particularly des- 
tined to receive the hardest blows. Some three days 



101 

after that memorable Sunday, I accidentally met tlie 
great theological thunderbolt of the times, Dr. John 
Si Mason, in the bookstore of that intelligent pub- 
lisher and learned bibliopole, James Eastburn. Mason 
soon approached me, and in earnestness exclaimed, 
" You doctors have been engaged in a wrongful work ; 
you have permitted heresy to come in among us, and 
have countenanced its approach. You have furnished 
accommodations for the devil's disciples." Not wholly 
unhinged, I replied, " We saw no such great evil in an 
act of religious toleration ; nor do I think," I added, 
"that one individual member is responsible for the 
acts of an entire corporation." "You are all equally 
guilty," cried the doctor, with enkindled warmth. 
" Do you know what you have done ? You have ad- 
vanced infidelity by complying with the request of 
these skeptics." "Sir," said I, "we hardly felt dis- 
posed to sift their articles of belief as a rehgious 
society." " There, sir, there is the difficulty," exclaimed 
the doctor. "Belief: they have no belief— they be- 
lieve in nothing, having nothing to believe. They are 
a paradox ; you cannot fathom them : how can you 
fathom a thing that has no bottom ? " I left the doctor 
dreadfully indignant, uttering something of the old 
slur on the skeptical tendencies of the faculty of physic. 
Such was the beginning of Unitarian public worship 
in this city. 

If there be present any of that religious association 
within the sound of my voice, I throw myself upon 
their clemency, that they be not offended by my eccle- 
siastical facts. I aim at a vei-acious historical narrative 
of times long elapsed, and I feel that my personal 
knowledge of many members of that religious per- 



102 

suasion will secure me from inimical animadversion by 
so enlightened and charitable a denomination. Uni- 
tarianism had indeed its advocates among us long 
before the pilgrimage of Channing in 1819. Every 
body at all versed in the progress of religious creeds 
in this country, will, I believe, assign to Dr. James 
Freeman the distinction of having been the first Uni- 
tarian minister of the first Unitarian church in New 
England. He promulgated his faith from the pulpit 
of King's Chapel in Boston, which church, however, 
had been vacant for some time, owing to political cir- 
cumstances growing out of the American revolution. 
He thus became the means of convertinof the first 
Episcopal church of the New England States into the 
first Unitarian church. Having been refused ordina- 
tion by Bishop Provoost of New York, Freeman re- 
ceived a lay ordination by his society alone, as their 
rector and minister, in 1787. I know nothing of him 
personally ; but the old and the } oung tell us he was 
of spotless integrity, of a sweet demeanor, and heavenly 
minded. He was an active promoter of the Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society ; he was a correspondent of 
Lindley and of Belsham. The distinguished Channing, 
who had been a rigid Calvinist, was converted by 
Freeman into a Unitarian, John Kirkland, so long the 
admired President of Harvard University, impressed 
with like theological doctrines, was sedulous in his 
calling, and earnest in making known the "Light of 
Nature," a work of curious metaphysical research from 
the acute mind of Abraham Tucker, published under 
the assumed name of Edward Search. 

That our Boston friends had favored us with dis- 
ciples of that faith in this city before that time is most 



103 

certain, else a society of that order of believers could 
not liave been so rapidly formed as appears by tbeir 
organization in Chambers street in ISi'l, when the 
Rev. Edward Everett delivered the dedication sermon, 
with suitable exercises by the Rev. Henry Ware, jun. ; 
asrain, at the installation of their new buildins;, corner 
of Prince and Mercer streets, in 1826, when Dr. Chan- 
ning preached the dedication sermon, and the Rev. Dr. 
Walker offered the final prayer. Still further, we find 
the Church of the Messiah, in Broadway, consecrated 
and the installation sermon delivered by Dr. Walker, 
and the pastoral duties assigned to Dr. Dewey ; but, for 
some years past, these have been discharged by Dr. 
Oso-ood. And as-ain, we find the oro^anization of the 
Church of the Divine Unity completed in 1845, the 
pastoral duties devolving on Dr. Bellows ; and again, 
the last-named church being disposed of to the Univer- 
salist Society, we witness the magnificent edifice for 
Unitarian worship, called All Souls' Church, situated 
on the Fourth Avenue, consecrated Decembei' 25, 1855, 
the Rev. Dr. Bellows, pastor.* 

The writings of Linsley, of Priestley, of Belsham, 
of Wakefield, were not wholly unfamiliar works in 
this city; nor could those early fathers, so often ran- 
sacked in the polemical disquisitions on the church of 
the first three centuries, have been altogether over- 

* The Rev. Dr. Osgood, in liis Historical Discourse, entitled " Twenty- 
five Years of a CoDgregation," thus expresses himself, when speaking of 
the origin and progress of the Unitarian worship in this city : — " Dr. 
Channing preached to a large audience in tlie Hall of the Medical College, 
Barclay street, which was granted by the Trustees, notwithstanding vio- 
lent opposition from some of the professors of the institution. Thus, to 
the medical profession belongs the honor of giving our form ot Liberal 
Christianity the first public hearing in New York." 



104 

looked by our scliolars and divines. This iufereuce 
I deduce from the indignation which so generally 
sprung up among the patrons of the work when the 
American edition of Kees' Cyclopaedia was commenced 
by Samuel F. Bradford. This enterprising publisher 
had in his prospectus announced that that great under- 
taking would be revised, corrected, enlarged, and 
adapted to this country. It was soon seen that, among 
other articles, that of accommodation in theology, 
which the learned Rees affirmed was a method that 
served as a way for solving some of the greatest diffi- 
culties relating to the prophecies, had been maltreated 
by an American reviser, reputed to be Dr. Ashbel 
Green, in Bradford's reprint. This unwarrantable 
act created uneasiness here, as well as among our 
eastern brethren, and had nearly jeopardized the 
patriotic intentions of the noble-hearted Philadelphian, 
Bradford, whose purpose was to enrich the literature 
and philosophy of our Ile2:)ublic with that monumental 
work. The dissatisfaction at this literary fraud per- 
vaded so many patrons here and elsewhere that I, even 
at that early date, came to the conclusion that Unita- 
rianism could scarcely be classed among the novelties 
of the day, and was not limited to any one section of 
the country. The perverted article doubtless partook 
originally of the religious fiiitli of the London editor. 
Never did the old Anthology Club present a nobler 
independence on the rights of opinion and of literary 
property than in their criticism on the affected emen- 
dation of the American copy of Bees. It is but justice 
to state of this great work, which still so justly holds 
a place in our libraries, that these disgraceful mutila- 
tions of Bees ceased after the reprint of the first 



105 

volume of the Cyclopredia, and tlie honest Bradford 
had weighty reasons to congratulate himself on the 
seasonable reproofs administered against the nnjust 
editors by the Tudors, and Kirklands, and Buckmin- 
sters of " The Literary Emporium." 

While in London I was a frequent visitor of Dr. 
Rees. A more captivating example of the Christian 
charities enshrined in one mortal, the eye could not 
light on. He possessed a tall and athletic frame, and 
a countenance of great benignity. He had all the 
requisites of a powerful preacher, in person, in manner, 
in tone, and in diction. His urbanity and his placidity 
of disposition secured the esteem of all who approached 
him. He told me that his labors were then nearly 
brought to a close ; that for more than thirty years he 
had been confined to his study, an ordinary room ; that 
his ^diurnal labor was of many hours ; that, save his 
Sabl)ath preaching at the Old Jewry, his only exercise 
had been his limited walk daily to his publishers, the 
Longmans. His fair and lively skin, his bright eye 
and his wholesome appearance, with such a life of 
mental devotion and such confinement, put at nought 
all my theoretical doctrines on the laws of health. He 
must have been more than a teetotaller. I was inform- 
ed he was the last of the Doddridge wig order, an 
imposing article, but which yielded in dimensions 
and artistic elaboration to the more formidable one 
which invested the brain-case of the great hellenist. 
Dr. Samuel Parr, with its distensive and seemingly 
patulous gyrations. To the curious in habiliments, I 
may add, that the wig of that right worihy, lately 
with us. Dr. Livingston, was of the Doddridge order, 
that of old Dr. Rodgers, Samuel Parr's. Nor is it trifling 



106 

to state the fact, for there was a time, according to 
Soutliey, when the wig was considered as necessary for 
a learned head, as an ivy bush for an owl. You will 
pardon this digression on Rees' Cyclopredia, inasmuch 
as it elucidates the point I would sustain, were this a 
fit occasion, that in the origin and spread of the Uni- 
tarian creed in this country, we are hardly justified to 
limit our attention to the movements of our Boston or 
Eastern friends. The well-known letter of Franklin 
to Stiles supports this view, and we have seen that 
when occasion has prompted, its advocates rise up 
limited to no special locality. The community that 
can enumerate among its supjiorters such writers and 
scholars as Channing, Dewey, Osgood, and Bellows, 
need cherish no apprehension that their cause will fall 
through from a stultified indifterence. But 1 find my- 
self launching in deep waters, and will near the shore. 

Enouo^h and more than enouofh has been said of the 
workings of the principles of religious toleration among 
us ; they furnish instructive proofs of the freedom 
secured to the people by our admirable constitutional 
form of government ; the intellect knows it, the searcher 
after truth is sustained by it. 

With a very brief notice of the Episcopalian de- 
nomination, I shall terminate these hasty sketches of 
religious matters. The Episcopalians of this metropolis 
have exercised a great influence on the interests of 
learning among Nevv^ Yorkers, and on their institutions 
of public instruction and humanity. They have also 
proved warm friends to the New York Historical 
•Society. 

The disruption of the colonies from the Mother 
Country proved more disastrous in its immediate 



107 

effects to tlie Protestant Episcopal Chiircli than to 
that perhaps of any other religious association. The ties 
which bound her to the forms and ceremonials of the 
Church of England, were strong and numerous; her 
ministers, with few exceptions, favored the cause of the 
loyalists, and consequently in a large majority of 
instances were, upon the restoration of peace, compel- 
led to abandon their ])astoral charges, and seek a live- 
lihood elsewhere. This consequence, with the disasters 
of the times, resulted in a deserted ministry and in a 
disabled and poverty-stricken religious community. 
The conscientious Churchman, bewailing the state of 
affairs and anxious of the future, looked forward with 
fluctuating hopes to the period when a happy issue 
might be found in the various deliberations which now 
occupied the minds of the friends of the Episcopate, not 
unlike those which agitated the patriots of the Kevo- 
lution amidst their discussions on the adoption of the 
Articles of Confederation by the old Congress. At 
length a Convention was held in Philadelphia, which 
continued from the 27th of September to the 7th of 
October, 1785, and delegates appeared from ^ew 
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, 
Vir<yinia, and South Carolina. Its labors brought 
forth the Protestant Episcopal Book of Common 
Prayer, proposed for the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
printed by Hall and Sellers, in 1786. This book, now 
rarely to be found, received the name of the Proposed 
Book. It was reprinted at London in 1787 ; it con- 
tained no Nicene Creed, nor Athanasian Creed ; it had 
the Apostolic Creed, but omitted " he descended into 
hell." It had a special prayer for the then existing 
government. It had a special supplication in the liturgy 



108 

for the tlieD Congress, and a form of service or prayer 
for the 4th of July. 

The Convention was again held in Philadelphia, in 
Sei3tember, 1789, William White, President, for the 
pnrpose of settling Articles of Union, discipline, uni- 
formity of worship, and general government among all 
the churches in the United States. The Prayer Book 
was now so adjusted as to meet with great acceptance 
and with full approval. At the instance of the English 
bishops, the passage " he descended into hell," was 
restored, with a proviso, that the words " he went into 
the place of departed spirits," might or might not be 
substituted. The Nicene Creed was restored; the 
prayers were made to conform to the now established 
government, for the President and all in civil authority. 
This Convention acrreed to abolish the service for the 
4th of Jul}^, but allowed each bishop the power of 
providing a suitable service for that and all other 
political occasions. In 17*.'2, Bishop Provoost, who had 
been absent from indisposition at the former Conven- 
tion, presided. The Church ordinal, for the ordination 
of deacons and priests, and the consecration of bishops, 
was agreed upon. It was j)rinted by Hugh Gaine, in 
1793. The articles of religion were agreed to in 
Convention in 1801, and have since that time been 
published with the Book of Common Prayer. 

This brief notice of the history of the Book of Com- 
mon Prayer, according to the use of the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church in the United States of America, seemed 
necessary, inasmuch as that highly prized volume is the 
recognized standard of the Episcopal Church of this 
country. It has proved of inestimable importance to 
the progress of the Church, as the bond of union of that 



101> 

important religions community ; it has preserved in- 
tact lier forms and ceremonials, and her devotions ; it 
has saved her from division and disunion ; it has sup- 
pressed intestine broils ; it has promoted uniformity of 
worship, a most important object ; and by it she has 
avoided the distractions and the local strifes which 
have too often disturbed the harmony and fellowship 
of other Christian associations. If from the cold lips 
and still colder hearts of the mere formalist, its reading 
has sometimes wanted the spirit of prayer, how much 
oftener has it saved from vulgar importunities in 
prayer, and rescued the finer emotions of the soul from 
irreverent demands of Heaven, and noxious crudities. 
It turns with conscious rectitude from the incoherent 
ravinsfs of enthusiasm, and disdains to look on the 
elongated visage of a scaramouch. The north and the 
south, the east and the west, hold it in equal rever- 
ence, and do homage to its unparalleled beauty of 
diction and its devotional sentiment. Living or dying, 
it yields the bread of life. 

New York had her share in that goodly work ; 
her learned Provoost was a member of both Conven- 
tions that framed it, and the first consecration in the 
Church of an additional bishop, was the act of Episco- 
pacy by Provoost, in this city, in the laying on of hands 
on Thomas John Claggett, D.D., of Maryland, in Sep- 
tember, 1792, at which ceremonial White, of Penn- 
sylvania, Madison, of Virginia, and Seabury, of Con- 
necticut, assisted. Provoost, White, and Madison, were 
the regularly consecrated bishops of the English Episco- 
pate, of the American Episcopal Church, the two former 
having been elevated to the Episcopate by Moore, 
Archbishop of Canterbury, in the chapel of Lambeth 



110 

Palace, in ITSY, and Madison in 1T90, in the same 
place, by the same authority. Bishop Seabury had 
received consecration in 1784, at Aberdeen, Scotland, 
by three nonjuring bishops, and by this convenient 
action of the bishops of the English consecration, and 
of Bishop Seabury, the American Episcopal Church 
(as it is believed intentionally) united both Episco- 
pates in theirs, thereby closing the door against the 
future occurrence of questions which might prove 
delicate and embarrassing. Seabury was a man of 
strong native powers, of cultivated intellect, of ex- 
tensive influence, ardent in the cause of Episcopacy. 
The Church may with sincerity ever hold him in grate- 
ful remembrance. When her sorrows were gravest, he 
imparted consolation ; when her weakness was greatest, 
he yielded her strength. Her tribulations only added 
to his zealous efltbrts in her behalf. He adhered to the 
royal side in the great contest with the Mother 
Country, and dwelt among the refugees in New York. 
He united in the protest declaring abhorrence of all 
unlawful congresses and committees, and doubtless with 
conscientious views, under the patronage of the obnox- 
ious Tryon, delivered a discourse to fear God and honor 
the king. He died a pensioner of the British govern- 
ment, and I incline to the opinion, was looked upon 
somewhat with a jaundiced vision by those devoted 
patriots, Provoost and White. 

It has been more than once affirmed, and the 
declaration is in print, that Bishop Provoost, as senior 
presbyter, and senior in the ministry, was conse- 
crated first, and Bishop White next, though in the 
same day and hour, February 4, 1787. The son-in-law 
of Provoost, C. D. Coldeu, a man of veracity, assured 



Ill 

me sucli was the case. If so, Provoost is to be recorded 
as the Father of the American Episcopate. It is pain- 
ful to pluck a hair from the venerable head of the 
apostolic White, but we are dealing with history. 
White, who died at the advanced age of eighty-nine 
years, lived to see the American Churcli with some 
twenty-three bishops, he having officiated at nearly 
every consecration. What vast obligations are due to 
his hallowed memory by the American Episcopate for 
the wise counsels, the many and inestimable services of 
that divine character ! 

Dissent, however lowly. Episcopacy, however high, 
will coalesce in opinion of the varied knowledge and 
classical attainments of Provoost, the piety and benefi- 
cence of Moore, and the talents, zeal, and ceaseless 
activity of Hobart. These eminent dignitaries of the 
churcli may, for their several qualities, be ranked 
among the most consi)icuous of their order, who have 
flourished in New York ; and were it practicable, we 
would fain dwell in particular upon the earnestness and 
achievements of the last-named. His death is too 
recent to require much at our hands ; sorrow at his 
early departure was universal ; it was felt as an irrepa- 
rable loss to the interests of a great community, who 
had almost by his individual efforts been extricated 
from many difficulties and risen to a commanding 
importance in numbers and influence. The aptitude of 
Hobart, in the work of the ministry, and his astonish- 
ing executive talent, have scarcely a parallel : his vigi 
lance noticed every thing that tended either to retard 
the advancement or quicken the progress of the Epis- 
copal Church. He was desirous of a learned priest- 
hood, and much of his time and his intellect were 



112 

given to tlie maintenance of the General Theological 
Seminary ; he was ardent for the practical, and sought 
befitting laborers, as the harvest was truly gi'eat. 
Many of the Episcopate had a richer fund of classical 
erudition ; but not one could be pointed out who pos- 
sessed an industry and devotion superior to his. It 
may be questioned whether he lost an idle hour during 
his whole career as bishop for nearly twenty years. 
He exercised a weighty influence on public sentiment, 
and the purity of his life stamped his opinions with a 
corresponding value. The Church to him was all in 
all. His adhesion to what he deemed its orthodoxy, 
allowed of no deviation from its prescriptions, nor 
could he cherish reconciliation with the doubting and 
the latitudinarian. His frankness enabled his oppo- 
nents always to know where to find him ; from his deci- 
sion of character, he could hardly be expected to live 
in perfect charity with all men. He was more than 
once absorbed in controversies on ecclesiastical polity, 
and his sentiments rendered him obnoxious to a portion 
of his diocese. The harshest opinion I ever heard him 
utter was, that Heber was only a ballad writer. The 
sentiment njust have taken possession of his bosom 
from the circumstance that the Bishop of Calcutta gave 
countenance to the British Bible Society ; and not a 
few of Bishop Hobart's friends regretted the perti- 
nacity with which he opposed the organization of a 
like institution here. Like Herbert Marsh, he dreaded 
the consequences of distributing the Scriptures without 
the Book of Common Prayer. The lamented Milner, 
whom the Church still mourns, did not wholly escape 
the penalty of resistance to the views of the American 
prelate, and that eminent statesman and patriot, Rufus 



113 

King, after having been chosen a Vice President of that 
National Society, resigned his office and withdrew from 
his high station at the special solicitation of his per- 
sonal friend, Bishop Hobart. In his conversation, the 
Bishop was animated, abounding in anecdotes and 
general knowledge, and was particularly attractive. 
His temper was sprightly ; he avowed his opinions 
with great freedom. He had strong feelings in behalf 
of American institutions, and was averse to the union 
of church and state affairs. The sincerity of his Chris- 
tian belief was edifyingly demonstrated in the manner 
of his death. He sickened of bilious disease while on 
his diocesan visitation, at Auburn ; on the morning of 
his final departure, the early sun shone in upon his cham- 
ber ; '' it is the last time," said he, " that I shall witness 
the rising sun ; I shall soon behold the Sun of righteous- 
ness." Thus died a great and good man. He who 
would know more of this eminent pillar of the Church, 
wall consult the Life, written by the venerable rector 
of Trinity, Dr. Berrian, the Eecords published by Pro- 
fessor M'Vickar, and the Memorial by the Rev. Dr. 
Schroeder. 

Before I conclude this portion of my subject, I must 
be permitted to say a few words on the literature of the 
Church ; and I am happy to add, that New York has not 
been behindhand with her sister States in her contribu- 
tions towards that great object. I have already adverted 
to the low^ and precarious condition of Episcopacy at and 
about the time when the Constitution of the American 
government was brought into practical action, and the 
many difficulties which encompassed the Church in the 
scattered and limited number of her ministry. The 
noble and venerable Society for propagating the Gospel 



114 

in foreign parts, had indeed sown precious seeds in 
divers places over the land. But the Church was 
prostrate, involved in fiscal troubles, and wanting in 
those effective measures of enlightenment indispen- 
sably requisite to rear up her intellectual greatness. 
Every intelligent individual is ready to acknowledge, 
with cheerful feelings, that we owe to our brethren of 
other denominations a large deljt for the many able 
and instructive works with which they have enriched 
the theological literature of the nation. We are aware 
of the scholarship of Andover, the biblical expositions of 
Princeton, and the graces of classical composition which 
have proceeded from old Harvard and Yale. In days 
past we remember Edwards, and Emerson, and Stiles, 
and Dwight. We forget not Hodge, Kobinson, Park, 
Norton, Stewart, Mason, and a host of others ; and wt; 
believe there is substantial reason for the hio^h estima- 
tion in which the works of many American divines are 
held, arisin<2: from the intrinsic excellence of their 
respective authoi'ship ; and if report deceive us not, 
we have the assurance that amoncr the most successful 
reprints abroad, are what we shall please to call Amer- 
ican theology. 

As respects the literature of the Episcopal Church, 
it seems to be most noteworthy for its conservative 
element. It is preceded by the Prayer Book, or is 
in close fraternity with it, -and this book of sacred 
wisdom gives a complexion to the thoughts and work- 
ings of the ministry of the Church that stamps a pecu- 
liarity more or less legible on its intellectual progeny. 
Like the pendulum in clockwork, it controls its move- 
ments, guards against irregularity, and secures harmony 
in all its parts. We thence see that its elaborations are 



115 

characterized less by diversity of speculation and 
startling novelties, and is to be noticed more for 
exegetical exposition and the elucidation of scriptural 
truth. Both by the pulpit and by the pen it is dis- 
posed more to persuade than to threaten, more to 
lead than to drive ; and finds it more consonant to 
its own emotions to announce the sflad tidiness from 
lips of praise, than in wrathful accents proclaim a 
Redeemer's love. Such it may be affirmed is the 
policy of the Church, and such is the attribute of her 
literature. Principles such as are now indicated, per- 
vade all her writings, and if so be an anathema is 
sometimes found, it is to be considered as an exception 
to her whole policy. The divinity which holds posses- 
sion in her breast, is the redeeming power of gospel 
truth. What triumphs she has secured by such pro- 
cedure will be best learned by comparing her vast 
increase and united strength at this present time with 
her feeble condition and disjointed state at her first 
organization. Let her in conscious purity and in the 
plenitude of divine grace cherish the most confident 
hopes. Let her go on her way rejoicing. Let her 
be ever jealous of her high title, the Protestant Epis- 
copal Church. Ever let the noble army of reformers 
command her admiration and her loudest plaudits. If 
the ignorant comprehend not her simplicity, and the 
cynical complain that her covenant has been invaded 
in these latter days by effete devices, let them be told 
all is as a passing cloud, pregnant wdth untold riches, 
and that her brightness, thanks to a good Providence, 
is hourly becoming more clear and beautiful, and her 
foundation stronger and stronger on the Rock of Ages. 
Let schismatics know that exj)loded theories find no 



116 

aliment witliin lier bosom, that obsolete formularies 
are at war with her doctrines and her discipline. She 
repudiates a pantomimic worship. Her formulary is 
the conformity of the heart to the plain and simple 
and comprehensible doctrines of apostolic communica- 
tion. Let her feel that she has arrived to that vig-or 

o 

by inherent strength, that in confidence she may trust 
in her manhood and go fortli triumphant. What has 
served her so well for more than half a centuiy, will 
suffice much longer. Her hardest trials have passed, 
and she is neither debilitated nor impure. The sound 
need no crutch. All that she now asks is, to live in 
harmony with the professing Christians of every sect 
and denomination. She is ready, she is willing, she 
trusts she is able, to do the work of her Master, and 
whether under the humble roof of the village chapel, 
or within the dome of the mighty cathedral, she has 
learned by experience that her coin will pass current 
without amalo-amation. 

A word or two on the literature of the Church. If 
the army of New England divines has almost over- 
whelmed the land with their achievements in the field 
of literature and theology, there is still room enough 
left for us to point out a few landmarks secured by 
the professors of the Episcopal Church. She has scat- 
tered abroad in profusion single discourses of elevated 
thought, strong devotional sentiments, and sound prac- 
tical edification. True she lacks earnestness in histori- 
cal detail, and seems too listless of the character and 
services of her predecessors. She ought, in an especial 
manner, no longer to overlook the vast importance of 
her history, faithfully written, for the honor of her 
devoted sons, and for the study and improvement of 



117 

lier future disciples ; at this present time, too, when 
the materials are still accessible, it behooves her to 
gather together the incidents of her career amid untold 
trials, and offer them, in a becoming form, as a demon- 
stration of her devotion and wisdom in her hisrh com- 
mission. It is gratifying to see that within a few years 
past the subject has, among all her calls of duty, 
awakened desires in some of the most efficient of her 
people to remove the obloquy which has too long 
rested on her, and several able writers have recently 
come to the rescue. The "Memoirs of the Protestant 
Episcopal Church," published years ago by the vener- 
able White, have been followed by those of the 
Church of South Carolina, by Dr. Dalcho ; by the 
Contributions of Dr. Hawks, in illustration of the 
Churches of Virginia and of Maryland ; by the His- 
tory of Trinity Church, New York, l)y Dr. Ben-ian ; 
by the Continuity of the Church of England, by Dr. 
kSeabury ; by the History of Dr. Dorr ; by two vol- 
umes of a newly formed association, the Protestant 
Episcopal Historical Society, having its origin, I be- 
lieve, in this city ; and, very lately, by a work of 
curious incidents, the History of St. John's Church, 
Elizabethtown, New Jersey. Some years since we 
had also historical materials of ecclesiastical value, in 
the Centennial Discourse concerning the Church at 
Quinc}^, by Dr. Cutler. All this argues well. Bishop 
Mead's Reminiscences are materials of instructive im- 
port ; and the Reminiscences of Bishop Chase will 
long hold in esteem the character and the arduous 
labors of the Pioneer Bishop of the West. That hardy 
and indomitable man has left the workino:s of a stronsr 
spirit in behalf of a mighty cause. He was the archi- 



118 

tect of liis own renown ; he had little book learning, 
but much knowledge of men. Having early laid plans 
for his professional life, no obstacles intimidated him ; 
and his determination, the result of his own cogita- 
tions, never forsook him. His settled purpose was for 
others, not for himself; he could therefore present a 
bolder front in his pressing demands for the accom- 
plishment of his great designs. His track through 
almost unknown wilds will be studied hereafter with 
a more appreciating judgment, and the blessings he 
has bestowed on the Church find a record from the 
pen that records national benefits, deduced from his 
fruitful doings. Many of his journeyings were through 
a portion of that country, then so little understood, 
wdiich the brave Carver had travelled ; and one may 
also place in juxtaposition these two intrepid men, 
Jonathan and Philander ; the sic vos non vohls beinir 
equally the temporal reward of both. 

As associated with the Church's History, is the 
Memoirs of her eminent men ; and we are not to com- 
plain either of lack of numbers or of value in those 
already published. The biography of Samuel Johnson, 
the first President of Columbia College, by Chandler, 
is the most engaging of this department of literary 
labor; and we cannot regret too much that so few of 
the great mass of papers from which this volume was 
made up have found a place in this admirable work. 
The Memoirs of White are next in order of time, and 
are indispensable to the ecclesiastical historian ; while 
those of Hobart, Griswold, Moore, Ravenscroft, Bedell 
and Wharton, unfold characteristics valuable in eluci- 
dation of Church matters. It is not, however, to be 
concealed, that, like many religious biographies, whe- 



119 

tlier by aiitliors abroad or at borne, they often lack 
interest from tbe absence of personal detail, and of 
tbat enlivening spirit which gives to biography its 
most engaging attraction. 

Honorable mention deserves to be made of the 
learned lal:)or of Dr. Samuel Farmer Jarvis. This ripe 
scholar had been professor of biblical history in the 
recently organized General Theological Seminary of 
the Protestant Episcopal Church, and was subsequently 
made Historiographer of the Church at large by the 
General Convention. In his Ecclesiastical Chronology 
and History he evinced the greatest research and de- 
votion. Like notice is due to the various writings of 
Bishop Hopkins of Vermont ; and it is gratifying to 
see the rece})tion his last work has met with by the 
reading public, — I mean his American Citizen. The 
devoted Episcopalian might often look with satisfac- 
tion into the writings of Bishops Hobart, Brownell, 
Potter, Whittingham, Eastburn, Burgess, MTlvaine, 
Onderdonk, and Doane, and find proofs of scholastic 
lore in the pages of Verplanck, Winslow, Coit, Griffin 
and Spencer. 

The canons of the Church have been elucidated by 
Judge Murray Hoffman of the New York bar, and by 
the Kev. Dr. Hawks. The Constitution and Canons, 
by the latter, was a peculiarly appropriate subject for 
her ecclesiastical historian, and the competent have 
given their testimony in behalf of the excellence of 
the undertaking. I shall conclude these very brief 
and imperfect sketches of the literary labors of the 
Church with a name widely known and appreciated 
by the erudite of both hemispheres, Samuel H. Turner. 
Dr. Turner's reputation for varied and profound schol- 



120 

arsliip, for rabbinical knowledge, and the activity of 
his pen in critical expositions of sacred writ, have 
secured him permanent renown. I am forbidden an 
enumeration of his many works. The Theological 
Seminary, in which he has labored so long, may con- 
gratulate herself on the honors with which such a 
professor enriches her, and freely add his name to the 
select list of lier ablest associates. Proofs sufficient, 
I tliink, have already been advanced to show that the 
literature of the Church is not locked up in sealed 
libraries, but is an active power ; and from her present 
advanced and improved state, we may draw an equally 
safe inference that her religion lies not dormant in 
the heart, but is an absohite principle, industrious in 
the work of faith. 

I leave ecclesiastical aftairs, and propose saying a 
few words on a subject which the ])hilosopher may 
pronounce of equal imj^ortance in a national point of 
view, — I nllude to our system of public education. It 
has become a vast subject in this our day, and com- 
mands the admiration of remote nations. The faithful 
historian of our first settlers, Mr. Brodhead, in his 
minute research, has dwelt upon the theme with the 
genuine spirit of the philanthropist, and clearly pointed 
out with Avhat earnestness the sagacity of the Dutch 
penetrated into the wisdom of establishments for that 
purpose ; and so early as 1633, only twenty-four years 
after the arrival of Hudson, organized the first school 
in New Amsterdam. " Neither the perils of war," 
says Brodhead, " nor the busy pursuits of gain, nor 
the excitement of political strife, ever caused them to 
neglect the duty of educating their oftspring." And 
with a love of the past, he has recorded the name of 



121 

this first schoolmaster, Adam Eoelandsen ; and it well 
merits to be further stated, that Ilcelandsen's original 
establishment continues in a prosperous condition to 
this day, and is the parochial school of the Protestant 
Reformed Dutch Church, supported by voluntary con- 
tributions. I have some recollection of the first for- 
mation of that system in this city, which finally even- 
tuated in the system of public schools. Only one year 
after your first measures were adopted to establish the 
Historical Society did the duty of enlarging the domain 
of knowledge by public instruction take possession of 
our city rulers. The Trinity Church charity school, 
and other free schools under the governance of differ- 
ent religious associations^ had indeed for years an 
existence, and were more or less prosperous ; but the 
great mass of children belonging to parents of no 
religious order were sadly neglected, save those who 
could accomplish the means of enlightenment at pri- 
vate institutions. The names of that noble band of 
citizens who were the applicants for an act to establish 
a free school in the city of New York for tlie education 
of such poor children as do not belong to, or are not 
provided for by any religious society, are duly recorded 
in the reports of the Board of Education; and he who 
looks over the list will recognize that many of the 
names of our prominent residents, of exalted excel- 
lence, are found in the number. Under its restricted 
powers, the society organized its first school in May, 
180G, with forty scholars. With enlarged charter 
powers, aided by the liberality of the city government, 
in 1808 they were provided a spacious building, which 
admitted five hundred pupils. 

I remember well the discourse delivered at the 
9 



122 

opening of this improved edifice, at the corner of 
Tryon Row and Chatham street, by De Witt Clinton, 
the moving spirit of the whole affair. He was the 
president of the society, and the Board of Education, 
in their Report of 1854, say well when they announce 
that the address was worthy of the occasion, " as sowing 
the seed wheat of all harvests of education which sub- 
sequent years have gathered into our garners." I have 
accompanied Mr. Clinton in those earlier days, in his 
tour of inspection, with Thomas Eddy, Jacob Morton, 
Samuel Wood, Joseph Curtis, Robert Bowne, Charles 
W^ilkes, Cadwallader D. Colden, and others, and I can 
testify to the scrutinizing devotion which Mr. Clinton 
gave to every thing that seemed calculated for the 
promotion of the great and novel design. By the 
death of Mr. Curtis very recently, all, I believe, of that 
philanthropic corps are departed. I see none left of 
the original body of incorporators. 

It is impossible at this time to be more minute or 
dwell longer on this grateful subject. In every condi- 
tion of public trust to which Clinton was chosen 
through life, he never forgot education and the public 
schools. Every message of his, while governor, descants 
on the vast theme, and his suggestions, years ago, as 
head of the State, may, I think, be honestly stated to 
have led to that special department, the Normal 
Schools. He is the first individual I ever heard 
descant on their immense importance to the proper 
rearing of competent tutors, and on the provision 
which ouo-ht to be made for such an undertaking:. I 
can scarcely conceive of a greater subject for a public 
discourse than the origin, the progress, and present 
state of our system of Public Education ; in every con- 



123 

dition, from its humble beginning up to its com- 
manding importance at tlie present day, from the 
Free School Society of 1805 through the change to the 
Public School Society of 1826, providing for all classes 
of children ; next the Ward school organization of the 
then called District schools ; then to its present con- 
solidation under the Board of Education of the City of 
New York, a period of nearly half a century. Well may 
that enlightened citizen and public-spirited character, 
E. C. Benedict, in his Report of 1854, as president, say, 
" The services of those philanthropic laborers in the 
noblest of causes has imposed upon the city a debt of 
gratitude that can never be fitly estimated, much less 
repaid." During that period it has conferred the 
blessings of instruction on 600,000 children, and on 
more than 12,000 teachers. So long as the influence 
of those children and their teachers shall be felt, (and 
when will it cease?) so long, justly adds Mr. Benedict, 
" shall the usefulness of the Public School Society 
continue." I will add, that according to the last 
Report of the Board of Education from the present 
enlightened President, Wm. H. Neilson, the whole 
number of schools within its jurisdiction during the 
year 1855, was 271. The glory and imperishable 
excellence of our public system of education, enhanced 
by the influence of our self-government, by universal 
freedom and a free press, were demonstrated to be in 
accordance with enlightened public intelligence, when 
at the election of 1850 the free school question was 
submitted to the popular suflfrage. Free schools were 
sustained in this city by a vote of 39,075 to 1,011, a 
majority of nearly 40 to 1. If more were wanting in 
confirmation, how easily could we swell the testimony 



124 

by the recorded opinions in behalf of the vast and 
enduring benefits of knowledge among the masses by 
the testimony of our wisest statesmen and patriots. 
And let us ever keep before us the vital principle that 
the colossal proportions of the republic are endowed 
by education alone with a proportionate cohesive 
power. Where education moreover is popular, the 
creative faculty abounds ; and it is characteristic of such 
a state, that the people thus blessed daily achieve some 
new step in advance, whether it be in the modification 
of a rail or in new powers for the steam-engine. 

The Free Academy, which, it has been very pro- 
perly remarked, gives completeness to the system of 
public instruction, and is an integrant branch of the 
whole system for the enlightenment of the people, pos- 
sesses the great advantage of a liberal system of educa- 
tion similar to that which is embraced in our colleges 
for the highest departments of study. Indeed, few, if 
any, of our collegiate establishments hold out so ample 
a course of instruction in classical literature, in modern 
languages, in mathematical and physical science. The 
existence of the Academy is brief, yet already have 
precious fruits been scattered broad-cast over the 
land, to the wonder and admiration of the most appre- 
ciating minds. I, unfortunately for myself, am but in 
a limited degree acquainted with the professors of that 
great school ; but if Dr. Gibbs is to be taken as a 
specimen of its teachers, unbounded confidence may 
be reposed in the acquisitions of its scholars. I only 
repeat what is uttered daily, that the distinguished 
principal. Dr. Webster, has solved the problem, how 
manifold are the benefits which may flow from a wise 
administration of able collegiate authority. 



125 

Let me iu all sincerity ask, in what otlier place 
may the poorest and the humblest child of indigence 
find instruction from the A, B, C, to the highest 
branches of classical and scientific knowledcre, throuo'h 
every stage of his study, without one dollar's expense 
to the recipient; and all this, every device and mea- 
sure, planned and accomplished since our organization 
in 1804. Let all praise be given to our constituted 
authorities for this exemplar of their wisdom and 
j)atriotic forethought : let above all others that capa- 
cious mind which is alike seen in the union of the 
Erie and the Hudson and in our noble system of 
education, become the theme of collegiate eloquence 
and historical record. Let our children and their 
children's children keep within memory the names 
of Hawley, Bernard, Randall, and Benedict. But 
this request is perhaps superfluous ; the bounty is ever 
before us, the givers cannot be forgotten. To those 
alive to local history and the origin of great practical 
ideas, says the accomplished essayist Tuckerman, in his 
biographical volume, daily observation keeps fresh the 
memory of Clinton.* 

* Most astounding disclosures were made at the London Educational 
Conference in June last, 1856, on the great question, the enlightenment of 
the people. I extract from the report, which appeared in the Illustrated 
London News: "Notwithstanding all the voluntary efforts, all the be- 
nevolence, all the liberality of Churchmen and of Dissenters, of cor- 
porations and of individuals, there are in England and Wales, out of nearly 
five millions of children between the ages of three and fifteen years, little 
more tlian two millions who attend any school whatever, leaving 2,801,848 
— nearly three millions — who are not in the receipt of school instruction." 
"Nor is even this state of things, bad as it is, the worst part of the case. 
Of the two millions of children who attend existing schools, we are in- 
formed by the Prince that only six hundred thousand — less than one-third 
— are above the age of nine. In other words, more than one-half of the 
poor children of England receive no school instruction at all, and two- 



126 

The transition is not altogether violent, in leaving 
one species of instruction for another — in dismissing 
the system of school education and taking up the 
Stage, so long reckoned a source of useful knowledge, 
and by many still deemed capable of becoming an 
enlightened monitoi*. But with the drama, as with 
many other subjects that properly belong to a dis- 
course accommodated to this occasion, I am subjected 
to a painful brevity ; for what adequate notions can be 
imparted within the few moments at command, of the 
dramatic occurrences of New York during the past fifty 
years ? It has so happened that for forty years of my 
life I have been, with slight intermissions, the medical 
adviser and physician of many of the leading heroes of 
the sock and buskin, from the arrival of the great 
George Frederick Cooke in 1810, to the departure of 
the classical Macready in 1849; and I am apprehensive 
that of all the individuals commemorated in Dun- 
lap's Biography of Cooke, I am perhaps the sole sur- 
vivor. 

I cannot say that I have ever been stage-struck or 
dramatically mad in my admiration of the histrionic 
profession ; yet as one ever gratified wdth the displays 
of intellectual power, I have experienced the raptures 
inspired by genius, in a vocation which, while it holds 
the mirror up to nature, is the acknowledged school of 
oratory, and has received in all ages among the refined, 
the countenance and suj)port of many of the loftiest 

thirds of the remainder are taken away from school at an age so early that 
it is quite impossible for them to have received any enduring benefit from 
school teaching. The result is, if these figures are correct, that only one 
child out of every eight in this rich, civilized, and Christian country, re- 
mains at school after its ninth year.'' 



127 

minds and most sympathizing hearts. Moreover, I 
think it not too much to say, that my professional 
intercourse with actors has enabled me to obtain a 
view of dramatic character and of dramatic life, 
which could scarcely be expected to fall within the 
scope of the mere beholder of scenic representation, 
who never perhaps had passed behind the foot-lights, 
or been familiar with that condition of physical and 
mental toil which the ceremonies and performances 
due to "personation," impose on the feehngs of the 
successful artist. 

I take it for granted that no intelligent man will 
hold in doubt the fact, that the life of the player is 
one of severe trial, of great demands on the physical 
powers, of incessant mental anxiety, and of precarious 
rewards. Yet have I known many members of that 
callino- filled with the lar^^est benevolence and enriched 
with the graces which dignify human nature. The 
actor's life is especially subjected to the caprices of 
fortune ; the platform on which he stands is ever uncer- 
tain ; as a general truth he encounters adversity with 
more than ordinary fortitude. I have known many 
instances of this nature ; the mimic woi'ld has its stern 
realities not less than the actual, and the wardrobe no 
more protects its denizen than do the common habili- 
ments of the ordinary citizen. " The life of an actor," 
says a modern essayist of the school of English unde- 
filed, " is a severe trial of humanity. His temptations 
are many ; his fortitude, too, often ineffectual ; his 
success precarious. If he be resolute, uncontaminated 
by the society of his associates, and a genuine artist 
besides, he is worthy not only the praise of the moralist, 
but also deserving the admiration of the critic. The 



r2s 

projiulioe npiiust tlio profession, like most ]nvvailing 
pivjiuHoos, is founded on o-onernl truth ; but it is fre- 
quently absurd and baseless." "^' If the stage has fallen 
from its high estate, and failed to raise the genius and to 
mend the heart, io elevate the moral sentiment by he- 
roic action and sublime example, let not its sad decline 
re^t solel Awith the representatives of Shakspeare and 
Jonson ; let something be ascribed to the revolutions of 
taste and to the mutability of popular opinion ; but 
moi-e than all, let us sutler within oui'selves the chagrin 
of self-eondemnation, like the dyspeptic patient, who in 
searching for the causes of his own horrors, tinds them 
to have originated from the pernicious alinient in 
which his disturbed propensities had led him most un- 
wittingly to indulge. ''The love of the drama," says 
tlie poet Campbell, "is a public instinct, that requires 
to be regulated, but is too deep for eradication. 1 am 
no such bigot for the stage," continues he, " as to say 
that it is necessarily a school of morals ; foi', by bad 
management, it may be mavle the revei*se : and I 
think, on the whole, that the drama rather follows than 
leads public morals."' The drama is legitimately the 
school of human life: it has vast accommodations, but 
itc-i origin is in the human heart ; in its nature it is the 
concentration and the exposition of the passions and 
the doings of man. Let it cherish tidelity to its great 
trust ; let it so conduct itself as not to fall below the 
intelligence of it^ arbitratoi^s : never forgetting that the 
schoolmaster is abroad. The remedy is within gr;\sp : 
and its restoration is not altogether a thing of fancy. 

* ChaMoter;? ;uul Criticisms, bv W. Alfroil Jones, A. M.. Now York, 
Vol. 2, p. 1.^-:. v:uio. 1857. 



129 

The scliolar, liowcver fnstidioiis, cnnnot uliolly dis- 
regni'd a, tlieme which foniid liivor :iiii(>n<;- tlic lucid )r;i- 
tioiis of the mii^'hty Wiirhiirtoii : lie who would \)V\w- 
trate into the ethics of hniuaii life need not suller 
ap])rehension of evil from studies Avhich ahsorhed 
many of the precious hours of the i;reat moralist, 
Johnson ; nor can the Christian })liiloso})her be afraid 
to reason on the subject with the exaniph^ before; him 
of Yonng, the successful anthor of the Revenge, and 
the poet of the Night Thoughts, a work whose devo- 
tional excellence has nuuh; it a manual of closc^st 
study to millions of human souls, wherc^ver rev(;aled 
trnth has been recognized. 

1 am not so confident as to presnme that what I 
may utter can have any inihience on a No.w York 
community, either on the fortunes or destiny of tin; 
starve. It has been decried ])y the best of men, Jind it 
has been countenanced by the wisest. It was formerly 
supported by religions partialities, and civery body is 
aware that it owes its origin to rehgion, and that tlie 
first actors were ])riests or missionaries. An illiterate 
multitude were thus enlightened, and the clergy with 
an inherent sagacity represented the wonders of belief 
and the actions of the gods in a])i)roj)riate tem])lo3. 
For a long while it was a school of insti'uction, and Ibr 
manners and behavior, and on tliis account tin; stage 
is still higlier to be appreciated. Shakspeare has 
taught more history to the masses than all the school- 
masters, from the time Avhen the first j)edagogue was 
installed, and Lord Chesterfiehrs dicta have i)roved a 
mere cipher compared to the operations which scenic 
influence has wrought in mollifying the intercourse of 
society. Yet there is a progress in refinement wliich 



130 

eclipses the exliibitiou of the stage, and he whose mind 
is stored with much knowledge, will abandon the- 
atricals as having lost their former interest with him. 
It certainly is a foe to hypocrisy, and that alone, with 
the real philanthropist, is no small recommendation. 
It proves a wondrous relief to the laborious man and 
the worn intellect, and is a happy snccedaneum for 
diversions less beneficial to good morals and good 
health. Grant that the sphere of the stage is indeed 
local and its displays fugacious, yet it leaves a lasting 
im23ression on the human heart. Its rich literature 
bears the imj^ress of genius and cannot be overlooked 
by the accomplished scholar. But I must break off 
here. Let those wlio would raise an indiscriminate 
outcry against the stage, i"ead the calm and dispassion- 
ate Address of Dr. Bellows, lately delivered in the 
Academy of Music, l)efore the Dramatic Fund Asso- 
ciation. 

The history of the first introduction of the stage in 
the American colonies is full of perplexity. Dunlap, 
our leading dramatic historian, in his work on the 
American Theatre, a performance of acknowledged 
merit, has blended his facts with so many errors, that 
we strive in vain to derive from his pages a true know- 
ledge of the subject. He was doubtless led into most 
of his difficulties by too great reliance on the story 
given by Burk, in his History of A^irginia. I have 
endeavored to make the case clearer, and have sought 
out curious facts in Parker's News Boy. The intro- 
duction of the drama in the American colonies was in 
this city, on Monday evening, the 26th of February 
1750, in a convenient room for the purpose, in one of the 
buildings which had belonged to the estate of Rip Van 



131 

Dam (a renowned Knickerbocker) in Nassau street. 
The play was the historical tragedy of Richard the 
Third, written originally by Shakspeare, and altered 
by Colley Cibber, under the management of Lewis 
Hallam, whose family consisted of his wife, a son 
Lewis, and a younger son, Adam, with a niece, Miss 
Hallam. His elder son, Lewis, was but twelve years 
of age. Dunlap says, that he made his first appear, 
ance in September, 1752, at Williamsburg, in Vir- 
ginia. The younger, Adam, appeared in October, 
1753, in this city, in the character of "Tom Thumb." 
He had a daughter, who became Mrs. Mattocks in 
England. It may be that this company, under manager 
Hallam, appeared next in Williamsburg ; but on the 
15th of April, 1754, they opened in Philadelphia with 
the '' Fair Penitent." 

We have not before us the cast of the play (Richard 
the Third) enacted in this city. It possesses so many 
dramatis personce^ that we have little doubt that 
several of the company had to take double parts. 
Rigby, we may safely infer, enacted Richard Third. 
There was no accommodation of boxes, only pit and 
gallery. There was no farce after Richard Third. 
The permission for the performance was given by the 
British governor, Clinton. Lewis Hallam, at the age 
of twenty-nine, appeared in Lord Ogleby, the year 
after the comedy was written, in 1767. This part he 
played for forty years ; the last time in the Park 
theatre, in 1807, and witnesses of this fact still survive. 
Manager Hallam died in Philadelphia in 1808. This 
company was generally designated by the name of the 
Old American Company, and Hallam the father of the 
American stage. 



132 

Thus it appears that this city has enjoyed the 
drama for iij)wards of one hundred years. Of that 
fifty which had passed away before the establishment 
of our Historical Society, I intend not now to en- 
large. Suffice it to say, as to the character and abili- 
ties of the performers of the American company our 
oldest playgoers were often heai'd to speak in terms of 
highest approbation ; and when we enumerate Hallam, 
Henry, Harwood, Jefferson, Cooper, Fennell, John- 
stone, Hodgkinson and his wife, Mrs. Oldmixon, and 
Mrs. Merry, we need not apprehend that their plaudits 
were unmerited. The names of several of these effi- 
cient actors of the olden times may be seen recorded 
on the bills which announced the arrival of Cooke. 

To one who contemplates the progress of art and 
education in our land, it will at once occur that with 
theatricals, as with instruction generally, we depended 
almost altogether upon supplies from abroad. Our 
preachers, our professors in colleges, our artists, our 
books were rarely indigenous, and the stage illustrates 
our early reliance on the mother country in an equal, 
if not in a greater degree, than in any of the other 
vocations of busy life. If our condition was once so 
restricted that farmer Giles imported from beyond the 
seas wooden axe-handles when the country was over- 
run with forests, surely it may be pronounced to have 
been admissible that a truthful Cordelia might be 
included among importable articles, for the praise- 
worthy design of disciplining the humanities of the 
man of refinement. At the time of the first represen- 
tation of Richard the Third, animadversions appeared 
on the corruptions of the stage ; but, in its defence, 
Whitfield is cited in its belialf, inasmuch as he had 



133 

ascribed his inimitable gesture and bewitching ad- 
dress to his having acted in his youth ; and the writer 
moreover adds, with great earnestness, that the abuse 
of a thing against its use is no argument, as there is 
nothing in this world but must fall before such demol- 
ishino; kind of los^ic. There was little dramatic criti- 
cism, however, among us in the early days of the 
theatre. 

The chronicler who would be faithful to the his- 
tory of the stage in New York would be compelled to 
say something concerning that period which elapsed 
between the commencement of the great American 
w\ar of 1776 and its end in 1783. Durino- that interval 
the English plays of Garrick, Foote, Cumberland, Cole- 
man, O'Keefe, Sheridan, and others, reached from time 
to time this country, and were enacted by the officers 
of the army and navy, and by select aids in private or 
social circles ; and a remarkable peculiarity of the 
times seems to have been, that it w^as quite a com- 
mon circumstance to appropriate or designate some 
leading or prominent individual among the inhabitants 
of the city as the character drawn by the dramatist 
abroad. Qui capit^ ille facit. Thus, w^hen the Busy 
Body appeared, it was thought that Dr. Atwood 
would be the best exemplar of it. Atw^ood, as all 
who hear me probably know, was the first practitioner 
of medicine in this city who regularly assumed, by 
advertisement, the functions of a male accoucheur. 
He obtained confidence, notwithstanding the novelty 
of the attempt. Atwood knew every thing of every 
family ; he abounded in anecdote, but his comj^any 
w^as more courted^than admired. He at one time pos- 



134 

sessod, l)y inlieritanco, great wealth, but died poor, 
tlirouu'li tlie conduct of his sou Cliarles. 

Wlu'u Laugh and Grow Fat appeared, the public 
said it well fitted the case of Mortier. He was a cheer- 
ful old gcutleuiau aud |)aymaster to the British aruiy ; 
but the h'auest of all liuuiau beiui^s, accordiuo; to the 
MS. I lately inspected of Mr. John jNloore. He was 
almost diaj)hanous. Mortier built the great mansion on 
the Trinity Church grounds, to which I have already 
alluded in my account of Col. Burr's residence. 

It would seem that during these times an Ode to 
Love was recited ; the sympatlietic }nd)lic ascribed it 
to old Judge Tlorsmanden, so famous in the Negro 
Plot, who had marrieil at seventy years of age. The 
A\Mieel of Fortune was made a])plicable to Governor 
Gage, who had anivcd in this country as a captain in 
1756, in the old French war, and in 1775 Avas com- 
mander-in-chief of the British army. The Male Co- 
(]uette was by a sort of unanimous concurrence api)lied 
to James Smith, the brother of the historian of New 
York, the man whom I described in my sketch of Chris- 
toj)her Colles as writing nuulrigals for the young ladies. 
lie nuist have pursued the game nearly half a century. 
When Anacreou INlooi-e visited this city in lS0"J-3, 
Smith had the temerity to oiler wdth i-enewed vigor 
his oblatit>ns on the altar of love. I knew him well. 
He was an M.D. of Leydeu. When professor of chem- 
istry in Columbia College, then cdled King's, his ilow'- 
ery diction with the students greatly disturbed both 
analysis and synthesis. IIem]istead Plains was brought 
forward in those times, most probably an indigenous 
work. It is athrmed that it alluded to one of the 
prominent nuMubers of the Beekman family, Gerardus, 



a n'n'at sportsman, w lit> scrunil llio I'rputMlion «>l' Iwiv- 
iii';' I^IIUmI iiiofi' Itiitls lliMiiaiiN t>lhfr Miaii (hat t'\ <M' 
lived. Iltsliol (IctT ill tlir«Mt\ ('oimiioii (iu>\\ Tailv^ 
and ant ItMs, t lit' I lopiru's of Ins skill, are yd prcstMN cd 
ninoiiL'; Ids dcsi't'iulanls as eui'losldrs lo niarU the rily s 
progress, llt^ U('|>(. a diary of his gunnery. 

Uul we must iiasliMi lo times ncaiuM' (>iir»»\\ n. AImmiI 
tin' lH'<;innin!'; oltlie scrond i»ait el the dcsivjiatcd »>in< 
liundrcd \<'ars, the IMorniii!" (Mironiclt^ a journal (>!" 
nnuii (as((> in litoratiiic and llio arts, edited l>y I >r. 
Teter lrvin;>', and (In^ New N'ork I'lvenin;'; Tost, edited 
l>N William ('oltinan, were llie pronimcnt |»a|»er;i in 
w liieli an\ lliiii" like rcMilar tlieatiieal eriti«-isniM were 
|)id»lislied. In the loniiei- a series ol" artieles on phiys 
and aetors w as piinled in ISO'' ;'.,». Ncr jli»^ sivnaluro 
«>l" Jinialhan ( >ldst \ le. At the time ol" tlu'ir appear- 
anee lhe\ w cit^ i;'enerali>' aseril»ed to liie aeeoniplislied 
edil(»r, \h. Irxini;, who eiijoNed L;'r<'al. distineli(»n tor 
elassieal aetpiisilitai and belles h'll res knowledj'y. I 
knew iiini oiil> in iiis ad\.'ineed lile, when illness liad 
neaih exhausted his frame: Net lie was most eonrlvoiiHj 
relinetl, and eiii;asj;iiii^'. \ <'ais elapsed Ix^lor*^ the I'eaJ 
author l»e»*aiiie known. The) ai<', I heTuni^, amon<.;' 
the earliest. lil(M'ary «'11oits of our foiml ry man, Wash- 
iii"ton lr\in!;', then about the niii<teeiilli \ear ol his 
ai;«', 'riiese eritieisms were not. wiintiii;:; in tree am 
math t'lsion ; \ri l>eli;iy«'d soim^t hiiijj;- «»l" thai !..";eiiia,l 
liuinor w liieli st» ani|tl> al»»»unds in st^Ncra! ol" llie sub- 
se<pient \\ ritiie's of that (MiiinenI author. ( 'oleiiian, a 
man of cult lire and ol impulse, often supplied the «ity 
witii his iiuaibral ions, and aimed to settle all other 
(•lilieisins b\ his individual vcrdiet. Ib^ was (dteii 
furnished wilii artieles «»f peeiiliar merit on a«'tin^ and 



136 

actors, by John AVells, the renowned lawyer, h}^ Wil- 
liam Johnson, the well-remembered reporter, and by 
our lamented Anthony Bleecker. Will W^izzard, in 
the Salmagundi of 1807, also favored the town with 
two or three theatricals on the histrionic talents of the 
Old Park Theatre. 

The arrival of Cooke in this country constitutes the 
great epoch in the progress of the drama, and is the 
period at which the historian of the American stage 
turns to contemplate the wonders of scenic power. On 
the night of the 21st of November, 1810, Cooke 
ap23eared at the Park Theatre in Richard Third, 
before an unprecedentedly crowded house. His vast 
renown had preceded him ; but every anticipation was 
more than realized. He had reached his fifty-fourth 
year, yet possessed all the physical energies of thirty. 
The old playgoers discovered a mine of wealth in 
Shakspeare, now first opened. His commanding person, 
his expressive countenance, his elevated front, his eye, 
his every feature and movement, his intonations, show- 
ed the great master who eclipsed all predecessors. His 
capacious intellect, his boldness and originality, at once 
convinced his hearers of the superiority of his study 
and his matchless comprehension of his great author. 
The critics pronounced him the first of living actors. It 
must suffice at this time to observe, that this remark- 
able man and performer, during his whole career in the 
several cities of the Union, sustained his dramatic 
reputation unimpaired. The sad infirmity which too 
often laid hold of him, to the casual detrimeut of his 
great abilities, was dealt with by the public more in 
pity than in anger ; and indeed he seemed to be at 
times beloved the more for the dangers he had passed. 



137 

Diinlap appears througliout liis wliole biography to 
have delisrlited more to record bis inebriation than to 
unfold bis great professional powers. Perhaps it was 
easier to describe a debaucb tban to analzye tbe quali- 
ties of a sublime genius. 

At tbis late date, after a lapse of nearly balf a 
century, it migbt be pronounced foolishness to offer 
even a passing remark on Cooke's peculiar merits in 
portraying individual character. Gibber has said, the 
momentary beauties flowing from an harmonious elocu- 
tion, cannot, like those of poetry, be their own record, 
and everybody has felt the force of the observation. 
1 had seen little of the stage before I saw Cooke, and 
must therefore hold in comparison in the little that I 
utter, tbe impressions experienced from actors of a 
later date. Cooke's Sbylock, a new reading to the 
western world, w^as a most impassioned exhibition. 
His aquiline nose was of itself a legacy here. The 
revengeful Jew made his great and successful impres- 
sion with Tubal, and in tbe trial scene his triumph was 
complete. lago, with Cooke, was a more palpable and 
consummate villain than with any other actor I have 
subsequently seen. I think I have seen a better Mac- 
beth ; the transitions of Cooke were scarcely immediate 
enough for the timid, hesitating, wavering monarch. 
His Sir Giles Overreach was not so terrifically impres- 
sive as that of Kean. His Kitely was an intellectual 
repast. His Lear verified the opinion of Johnson con- 
cerning that tragedy. " There is no play," says he ^ 
" which so much agitates our passions and interests our 
curiosity." Cooke's Sir Pertinax, for comic force, ver- 
satility of features, blandishments, inimitable pliability 
10 



138 

of address, and 2:>erfect personation of character, is 
acknowledged to have surpassed Macklin's. A like tri- 
bute is due to his Sir Archy M'Sarcasm. I believe 
that no actor in any one part within the compass of 
the entire drama, ever excelled therein to an equal 
degree as did Mr. Cooke in the Scotch character. The 
impression created by its representation is too deep to 
be obliterated while one survivino; witness remains. It 
was his greatest performance, and was rendered the 
more acceptable by his wonderful enunciation of the 
Scotch dialect. In one of my medical visits to him at 
the Old Tontine, his first residence in New York, I in- 
cidentally spoke to him concerning his personation of 
Sir Pertinax, and stated all the town bad concluded he 
was a Scotchman. " They have the same o])inion of 
me in Scotland," said he ; " I am an Englishman." iVnd 
how, sir, did you acquire so profound a knowledge of 
the Scotch accentuation ? I rejoined. "J studied more 
than two and a half years in my own I'oom, with 
repeated intercourse with Scotch society, in order to 
master the Scottish dialect, before I ventured to appear 
on the boards in Edinburgh, as Sir Pertinax, and 
when I did, Sawney took me for a native. It was the 
hardest task I ever undertook." 

Cooke justly demands a greater space than this 
occasion w'arrants ; but the able critical pens of the 
time have commemorated his achievements, and the 
veteran Wood, in his personal reminiscences of the 
stage, has dealt with him impartially and delineated 
his character with great fidelity. He w^as of a kindly 
disposition, of great benevolence, and filled with cha- 
ritable impulses. His strong mental powers were im- 



139 

proved by reading, yet more by observation and a 
study of mankind. Self-reliance was his distinguishing 
quality; few ever were at any time able to overcome 
his determination. His resolves scarcely ever yielded. 
When not influenced by the goblet, his conversation 
was instructive and his manners urbane ; he had a tear 
for distress, and a hand of liberality for want, lie was 
a great original, and had the logic within himself to 
justify innovation. His master was nature, and he 
would submit to no artificial rhetoric. He thought 
much of Kemble, and every thing of Garrick, both of 
whom he had seen perform. He cherished an exalted 
idea of his art, and demanded deference from the 
menial and the noble. He was thoroughly imbued 
with the value of Franklin's aphorism, " If you make a 
sheep of yourself, the wolves will devour you."' He 
tolerated no invasion of his rights. And yet that one 
stain on his character, his mania for drink (a periodical 
disease, often of some duration), dethroned his high 
purpose, and at times degraded him below the dignity 
of man. In that condition no violence was like 
his ; abuse of kindest friends, extravagance beyond 
limits, obstinacy invincible. On the return of right 
reason, he would cast a withering glance at those 
around him, and ask, " What part is George Frederick 
Cooke placarded for to-night ? " 

After one of those catastrophes to which I have 
alluded, I paid him a visit at early afternoon, the better 
to secure his attendance at the theatre. He was seated 
at his table, with many decanters, all exhausted, save 
two or three appropriated for candlesticks, the lights 
in full blaze. He had not rested for some thirty hours 



140 

or more. With much ado, aided by Price the manager, 
he was persuaded to enter the carriage waiting at the 
door to take him to the phiy-house. It was a stormy 
night. He repaired to the green-room, and was soon 
ready. Price saw he was the worse from excess, but 
the pubHc were not to be disappointed. " Let him," 
says the manager, " only get before the lights and the 
receipts are secure." Witliin the wonted time Cooke 
entered on his part, the Duke of Gloster. The public 
were unanimous in their decision, that he never per- 
formed with greater satisfaction. As he left the house, 
he whispered, " Have I not pleased the Yankee 
Doodles ? " Hardly twenty-fours after this memorable 
night, he scattered some $400 among the needy and 
the solicitous, and took refreshment in a sound sleep. 

Throbbing invades the heart when narrating the 
career of this extraordinary man, of herculean consti- 
tution, so abundant in recuperative energies ; of facul- 
ties so rare, and so sublime, cut oflf so early. I was 
with him at his closing hours ; serous effusion of the 
chest and abdomen were the immediate cause of his 
death. He was conscious to the last. Cooke attracted 
a mighty notice when with his dignified mien and stately 
person, attired as the old English gentleman, he walked 
Broadway. His funeral was an imposing spectacle. 
The reverend the clergy, the physicians, the members 
of the bar, officers of the army and navy, the literati 
and men of science, the members of the dramatic corps, 
and a large concourse of citizens moved in the proces- 
sion. My worthy friend, George B. Kapelye, is the 
only survivor of the long train, whom I can now call to 
mind. The quiet Sabbath added to the solemnity. He 



141 

had 110 kindred to follow in the procession, but there 
were many real mourners. The sketches of Mr. Cooke 
in the Dramatic Mirror of Philadelphia, executed by 
Leslie, then a boy, are of most remarkable fidelity. 

The professional triumphs of Cooke led Holman 
soon after to visit America. He arrived in 1812, and 
saw his old friend on his dying bed. Holman had a 
checkered career. He was an Oxford scholar. On 
assuming the civilian's gown, he delivered with great 
success a Latin oration ; the eclat which folloAved his 
oratorical displays at the Soho Academy, led him to 
abandon theology and adopt the stage. He made a 
great hit in Orestes, and his appearance in Romeo was 
a decided triumph. His Lord Townley won him most 
applause in New York, and was deemed a finished per- 
formance. The elegant scholarship of Holman, his 
rigid temperance, surpassing all I had seen in any 
other person, and his fidelity to all obligations, secured 
him a consideration which enhanced the moral estima- 
tion of the dramatic corps. Impaired health led him 
to seek rehef at the watering-place, Rockaway, where 
he was seized with a fatal apoplexy, in August, 1817. 
The journals abroad stated that he lost his life by one 
of those remarkable phenomena which sometimes sig- 
nalize our climate, a sort of epidemical lightning, by 
which himself and several of his family were stricken 
down. We gave him a village funeral, most respecta- 
ble in numbers, at the head of which, with due solem- 
nity, walked the long-remembered old Joseph Tyler, 
the comedian, who has often trod the stage with Gar- 
rick, and Charles Gilfert, the musical composer. 

There are about this period of the drama, associ- 



142 

ated with Cooke, many tlieatrical celebrities, whose 
names might justly find a record here: many whom 
the critics lauded, and the spectators admired. Among 
the foremost is John Howard Payne, the American 
Roscius, who was signalized for his Norval, and his play- 
ing Edgar to Cooke's Lear. As an author, Payne's 
Brutus, and his Home Sweet Home, liave secured him 
a world-wide renown. I became acquainted with him 
as the editor of the Thespian Mirror, when he was 
about thirteen years of age. A more engaging youth 
could not be imagined ; he won all hearts by the 
beauty of his person, and his captivating address, the 
premature richness of his mind, and his chaste and 
flowing utterance. But I will abstain from further 
notice of him on this occasion ; every reader enamored 
of the story of his eventful life, with the vicissitudes of 
authorship, of playwrights, and of actors, will satisfy 
Ms desires by turning to the instructive pages of Duyc- 
kincks' Cyclopaedia of American Literature. 

A list of the most popular actors, male and female, 
of that period, and of some subsequent years, would 
necessarily include Jefferson, Simpson, Wood, Hogg, 
Hilson, Barnes, Bernard, the Placides, Conway, 
James Wallack, Mrs. Oldmixon, Mrs. Johnson, Miss 
Johnson, Mrs. Wheatley, Mrs. Darley, Mrs. Gilfert, 
and Mrs. Ilolman. As prominent in this long cata- 
logue, James Wallack might be permitted to stand 
first, as a tragedian of powers, and as a comic performer 
of remarkable capabilities. His Shaksperian range and 
his Dick Dashall are enough for present citation. Wal- 
lack is still with us, and continues as the connecting 
line between the old and new order of theatrical af- 



143 

fairs. The acting drama of these times, fairly set forth, 
would also introduce that distinguished American, 
James Plackett, whose Falstaif has been the theme of 
applause from even the lips of fastidious critics, and 
whose Yankee characters have stamped his powers 
with the bold impress of originality. Moreover, Hack- 
ett, in his correspondence on Hamlet with that able 
scholar, John Quincy Adams, has given us proofs that 
he had trained himself in a deep study of the philoso- 
phy of Shakspeare. It would not be unprofitable to 
dwell upon the capabilities of Edmund Simpson, whose 
range of characters was most extensive, and whose tal- 
ents manifested deep penetration in a broad expanse 
of dramatic individualities. But all this, and a thou- 
sand other circumstaiices, we must forego. I may be 
justified in remarking that, professionally, I became 
acquainted with a majority of these players, and can 
testify to the repeated evidences they afforded, from 
time to time, of their charitable feelings for the relief 
of suffering humanity, and their excellent principles in 
the conduct of life. At a little later date we find the 
boards enriched by George Bartley and his wife, for- 
merly a Miss Smith, to whom Moore dedicated a series 
of his Irish melodies. His Autolychus, his Sir Anthony 
Absolute, and his Falstaff, will long hold possession of 
the memory, and Mrs. Bartley, enacting the Ode on 
the Passions, w^as a consummation of artistic skill equally 
rare and entrancing. 

Still a little later, and a flood of histrionic talents 
seems almost to have overwhelmed us, in the persons 
of Kean, Matthews, and Macready. He who would 
draw the veritable portraiture and histrionic powers 



144 

of these remarkable men, might justly claim psycholo- 
gical and descriptive instincts of the highest order. 
They were not all of equal or of like merits. They 
were all, however, elevated students, under difficulties, 
and long struggled against the assaults of a vitupera- 
tive press and an incredulous pu])lic ; they all in the 
end secured the glories of a great success. With Kean 
I may say I was most intimate. He won my feelings 
and admiration from the moment of my first interview 
with him. Association and observation convinced me 
that he added to a mind of various culture the re- 
sources of original intellect ; tliat he was frank and 
open-hearted, often too much so, to tally with worldly 
wisdom. I was taught by his expositions in private, 
as well as by his histrionic displays, that the great 
secret of the actor's art depended upon a scrutinizing 
analysis of the mutual play of mind and matter, the 
reflex power of mental transactions on organic struc- 
ture. His little, but well-wrought, strong frame, 
seemed made up of a tissue of nerves. Every sense 
appeared capable of immediate impression, and each 
impression having within itself a flexibility truly won- 
drous. The drudgery of his early life had given a 
pliability to his muscular powers that rendered him 
the most dexterous harlequin, the most graceful fencer, 
the most finished gentleman, the most insidious lover, 
the most terrific trasfedian. The Five Courts could not 
boast a more skilful artist of the ring, and Garrick, if 
half that is said be true, might have won a grace from 
him. He had read history, and all concerning Shak- 
speai-e was familiar to him : times, costumes, habits, and 
the manners of the age. He had dipped into phre- 



145 

iiology, and was a physiognomist of rare discernment. 
His analysis of characters who visited him, to do 
homage to his renown, often struck me with astonish- 
ment. His eye was the brightest and most penetrating 
any mortal could boast, an intellectual telegraph. Dr. 
Young, borrowing, I suppose, from Aristotle, says that 
terror and pity are the two pulses of tragedy ; that 
Kean had these at command, every spectator of his 
Richard and Sir Giles, of his Lear and his Othello, is 
ready to grant. His transitions from gay to gi-ave, 
yielded proofs of his capacity over the passions. He 
knew almost instinctively the feelings of the house, 
whether an appreciating audience was assembled or 
not, and soon decided the case, often by the earliest 
efforts he wrought. He was proud as the representa- 
tive of Shakspeare, but told me a hundred times that 
he detested the profession of the actor. He loved 
Sliakspeare, though the hardest study to grapple with, 
because, among other reasons, when once in memory 
he was a fixture, his language, he added, was so 
stickal)le. Though I was with him almost daily during 
his visits among us, I never knew him to look at the 
writings of the great jioet, save once with King John, 
for any preparation for the stage, excepting on some 
two or three occasions ; he never attended rehearsals, 
and yet, during all his performances here, he never 
once disappointed the public, even when I knew him 
suffering from bodily ills that might have kept a hero 
on his couch. There is somethins: marvellous in that 
function, memory. Dugald Stewart was astounded 
when Henderson, after reading a newspaper once, 
repeated such a jiortion as seemed to him wonderful. 



146 

A like occurrence took place with our Hodgkiuson. 
He made a trifling wager that within an hour he could 
commit to memory a page of a newspaper, cross read- 
ing, and he won. Kean told me that the parts of 
modern dramas, such, for example, as De Montfort, 
Bertram, and the like, could not thus be retained. 
Henderson told Dugald Stewart that habit produced 
that power of retention. Has the memory, like that 
peculinr faculty of calculation which Zera Colburn pos- 
sessed, some anomalous function not yet unravelled ? 

It is well known that Kean, at one period of his 
histrionic career, enjoyed the unbounded admiration of 
the Scotch metropolis ; and it is recorded that the 
Highland Society honored him with a magnificent 
sword for his highly wrought performance of Macbeth. 
He on several occasions adverted to the circumstance 
of old Sir John Sinclair's flattering correspondence on 
the subject. Kean, if report be true, was invited to a 
choice meeting at Edinburgh, where were summoned 
many of the philosophers, professors, and critics usually 
congregated in that enlightened city. Scott and Wil- 
son, I take it, were of the number, headed by the 
octogenarian, Henry Mackenzie, the "Man of Feeling," 
president of the Highland Society. It was easy to 
foresee, that such an opportunity would not be per- 
mitted to escape such a scholastic board without some 
interrogatories being put to the great dramatic hero, 
on the genius of Shakspeare, and on the eloquence 
which elucidated him. The old professors of rhetoric 
had too long handled the square and compass in their 
Chiromania not to feel desii-ous of hearing if some new 
postulates might not be assumed, whose excellence 



14"^ 

might advance tlieir science. My old friend, John 
Pillans, of the High School, broached the subject. 
Kean had little to disclose ; yet that little had to 
suffice. He had no harangue on eloquence to deliver. 
He maintained that Shahspeare was his own interpreter, 
by his intensity and the wonderful genius of his lan- 
guage. Shakspeare, he continued, was a study ; his 
deep and scrutinizing research into human nature, and 
his sublime and pathetic muse, were to be compre- 
hended only by a capacity alive to his mighty purposes. 
He had no rhetorician's laws to expound. If a higher 
estimate was at any time placed upon his performances 
than upon those of some others who fulfilled the severe 
calling of the actor, he thought it might be due in part 
to the devotion which he bestowed on the authors, 
and the conceptions engendered by reflection. I have 
overlooked, said he, the schoolmen, and while I assume 
no lofty claims, I have thought more of intonation 
than of wsticulation. It is the utterance of human 
feelings which rises superior to the rules whicli the 
professor of rhetoric enjoins. It is the sympathy of 
mental impression that acts. I forgot the affections of 
art, and relied upon the emotions of the soul. It is 
human nature that gives her promptings. 

I interroorated Kean, at one of those intellectual 
recreations which now and then occurred in New 
York, if no other writer could be pointed out whose 
language might awaken similar emotions by elucida- 
tion. The funeral service of the Church, he replied, 
will demonstrate the capabilities of the speaker. When 
a new candidate for histrionic patronage waits at Old 
Drury, he is perhaps tested by the committee to de- 



148 

claim the speech over the dead body of Csesar, or the 
opening address of Richard the Third, or perhaps 
something from that mawkish lover, Romeo ; or he 
may be requested to read a portion of the funeral 
service of the Church ; this last answers as well as any 
thing from Shakspeare. We have nothing higher in 
eloquence ; nothing more effective, and the qualifica- 
tions of the speaker are often by such a criterion 
determined upon. I myself shall only add that Kean 
was controlled by an inherent sagacity, and, as events 
proved, that sagacity was convincing. The turmoils 
of the mind which, led to such results, lie could not 
expound. Aided by a masterly judgment, he knew 
where the golden treasures of the poet were buried, 
and his o^euius knew how and when to brins^ them to 
light, and to give them their peculiar force. 

Kean's success was not equal in all characters, and 
he frankly declared it. But how often has this proved 
to be the case with others ! Kemble could not excel 
in Richard the Third nor in Sir Edward Mortimer, 
and Kean could not approach the excellence of Kem- 
ble's Coriolanus. Miss O'Xeil, when she played Mrs. 
Haller, proved that the pathetic had never entered 
the bosom of Mrs. Siddons. Kean's scope was too 
wide for any mortal to cherish a design so presumptu- 
ous as universal success ; Ijut the imj)artial and well- 
informed historiogi'aplier of the stage will allow, that 
no predecessor in Kean's vocation ever excelled in so 
great a degree in such numerous and diversified deline- 
ations of the products of the dramatic art. And to 
what cause for such success are we to look, but to that 
vast capacity whicli original genius had planted within 



149 

liim ; to that boldness that dreaded not a new path, 
to that self-rehance which trained him, by untiring 
industry, to his assigned duty ; to that confidence 
which he cherished, that the artificial school of form 
and mannerism, with its monotonous tone, was rebel- 
lious to flexible nature, and must in time yield to those 
diviner assents residins^ in the human breast ? In the 
mechanics of ordinary life there might be such laws, 
and admiration excited at the regularity of the jjendu- 
lum, but the intellectual was a subtle ether not to be 
thus controlled. The service in which he had enlisted, 
as interpreter and expositor of the Bard of Avon, 
demanded that the passions have fair play, and that it 
were an absurdity to restrain the emotions of the soul 
by the laws of the pedagogue. His head was his 
prompter — his mental sagacity his guide. Never has 
an actor appeared w^ho owed less to the acting of 
others ; he disdained imitation ; he was himself alone. 
Need we have doubted the ultimate success of such 
heroism ? 

How vastly is his merit enhanced when we consider 
the renowned individuals who had had i:>ossession of 
the stage for some one or two ages prior to his en- 
tree in London, whose memories still lingered there, 
and further recollect the abilities of those, too, who, at 
the very time when he made his debut at Old Drury, 
were still the actual properties of the dramatic world, 
and had secured the homage of the British nation : the 
Kembles, Young, Mrs. Siddons, and we may add. Miss 
O'Neil. The verdict had gone forth that these artists 
could do no wrong; yet the little man, who had feasted 
sumptuously on herring at a shilling a week, who had 



150 

studied Sliaksj:»eare at tlie Cock and Bottle, wlio had 
enacted him amidst the clanking chains of a prison, ap- 
pears as Shylock. The actors and the audience, one 
and all, dismiss every doubt ; a new revelation is un- 
folded, and the intellect of the most intellectual critics 
is exhausted in ink and paper in laudation ; the poly- 
glott is ransacked for new phrases of approbation. 
The little man, but mighty actor, assumes a succession 
of Shaksperian characters, and London is taken, as if 
by storm. Hazlett declares that Mr. K can's appeai'ance 
is the first gleam of genius breaking athwart the gloom 
of the stage ; the dry bones shake, and the mighty 
Kembie exclaims, " He acts terribly in earnest ! " 
Coleridge says, "To see Kean act is reading Shakspeare 
by lightning ; " and Byron, the immortal bard, bursts 
forth : 

■ " Thou art the sun's brijrht child ! 



The genius that irradiates thy mind 

Caught all its purity and light from heaven. 

Thine is the task, with mastery most perfect, 

To bind the passions captive in thy train ! 

Each crystal tear, that slumbers in the depth 

Of feeling's fountain, doth obey thy call ! 

There's not a joy or sorrow mortals prove, 

Or passion to humanity allied, 

But tribute of allegiance owes to thee. 

The shrine thou worshippest is Nature's self — 
The only altar genius deigns to seek. 
Thine offering — a bold and burning mind, 
Whose impulse guides thee to the realms of fame, 
Where, crowned with well-earned laurels, all thine own, 
I herald thee to immortality." 

To demonstrate that ' his empire was not alone 
Shakspeare and the lofty tragic writers, he assumed 



151 

comedy; he gave us the Duke Aranza, Octavian, Syl- 
vester Daggervvoocl, Luke, etc., and played Paul, Mun- 
go, and Tom Tug, exJiibiting the variety and extent of 
his dramatic capabilities without loss of his mighty 
fame as the greatest living tragedian. I attribute 
Kean's unrivalled success in so wide a range of charac- 
ters somewhat to his extraordinary capacity for obser- 
vation. He individualized every character he assumed 
— we saw not Mr. Kean. Wherever he was, he was 
all eye, all ear. Every thing around him, or wherever 
he moved, fell within his cognizance. 

Pie might have been called the peripatetic philoso- 
pher. He was curious in inquiring into causes. He 
echoed the warbling of birds, the sounds of beasts, imi- 
tated the manner and the voices of numerous actors ; 
studied the seven ages, and said none but a young man 
could perform old King Lear ; was a ventriloquist, sang 
Tom Moore's Melodies with incredible sweetness, and 
was himself the composer of several popular airs. Thus 
qualified, he drew his materials fresh from observations 
amid the busy scenes of life, where he was ever a spec- 
tator. Garrick declared that he would give a hun- 
di'ed pounds to utter the exclamation " Oh ! " as did 
Whitfield. What might he not have given to pro- 
nounce the curse on Kegan as did Mr. Kean, or to be 
able to rival the pathos of his Othello ? 

The Lake Poets, as they were called, took a new 
road in their strides towards Parnassus, but that road 
is now mainly forsaken, and remains almost unvisited. 
Kean, with loftier aspirations and still more daring, 
essayed a new reading of Shakspeare ; there was large 
by-play, but no still life in him ; he rejected the mo- 



152 

notonoiis and soporific tone ; lie left the artificial ca- 
dence and tlie cold antiqne to Kerable. The passions 
with whicli the Almighty has gifted mortals ^yel'e his 
reliance, and as these will last while life's blood courses 
throno-h the heart, so lonsf will eudnre the histrionic 
school whicli Kean founded. 

That Kean's first visit to the United States was a 
complete triumj)h none will deny ; that his second, af- 
ter his disasters in London, by which his own folly and 
crime liad made him notorious, now rendered the 
American people less charitable to his errors, and less 
cordial in their support of his theatrical glory, is also 
an admitted fact ; yet his return among us gave demon- 
strations enough to prove tliat his pi-ofessional merits 
were still recoirnized as of the hii>"hest order : he miirht 

~ o o 

have repined at tlie departure of those halcyon days of 
18 "20-21, yet there were testimonials enough nightly 
accomi)anyiiig his career in 1825-20, to support him in 
his casual t>inking of the spirits, and perhaps at times 
to nullify that contrition that weighed so heavily at 
the lieart. Ilis devotion as an actor was not less ear- 
nest than when I first knew him. His Sir Giles in 
New York abated not of the vehemence and terror that 
characterized it as I had witnessed it at Old Drury 
in London, in 181G. There w^ere sometimes with him 
moments of renewed study, and he threw himself into 
several new characters which he had not previously 
represented here; his Zanga, his De Montfurt, and 
Paul were of the number. His Othello was received 
Avith louder plaudits than ever, and his Lear, as an in- 
spiration beyond mortals, was crowned with universal 
praises. Kean often told me that he considered his 



153 

tliirtl act in Othello his most satisfactory performance 
within the range of his histrionic career. " Such," I 
said, " seems to be the public verdict ; yet I have been 
more held in wonder and admiration at your King 
Lear." " The real insanity and decrepitude of that old 
monarch, of fourscore and upwards," said Kean, "is a 
most severe and laborious part. I often visited St. 
Luke's and Bethlehem hospitals in order to compre- 
hend the manifestations of real insanity ere I appeared 
in Lear. I understand you have an asylum for luna- 
tics ; I should like to pay it a visit, and learn if there 
be any difference in the insanity of John Bull and of 
you Americans." He was promised an opportunity. 

A few days after, we made the desired visit at 
Bloomins^dale. Kean, with an additional friend and 
m}'self, occupied the carriage for a sort of philosophi- 
cal exploration of the city on our way thither. On 
the excursion he remarked he should like to see our 
Vauxhall. We stopped ; he entered the gate, asked 
the doorkeeper if he might survey the place, gave a 
double somerset through the air, and in the twinkling 
of an eye stood at the remote part of the garden. The 
wonder of the superintendent can be better imagined 
than described. Arriving at the Asylum, with suita- 
ble gravity he was introduced to the officials, invited 
to an inspection of the afflicted inmates, and then told, 
if he would ascend to the roof of the building, a de- 
lightful prospect would be presented to his contempla- 
tion : many counties, and an area of sea, rivers, and 
lands, mountains and valleys, embracing a circuit of 
forty miles in circumference. His admiration was ex- 
pressed in delicious accents. " I'll walk the ridge of 
the roof of the Asylum !" he exclaimed, " and take a 
11 



154 

leap !" and fortliwitli started for the gable end of the 
building ; " it's the best end I can make of my life." 
Forthwith lie started towards the western gable end. 
My associate and myself, as he hurried onw^ard, seized 
him by the arms, and he submissively returned. I 
have ever been at a loss to account for this sudden 
freak in his feelings ; he was buoyant at the onset of 
the journey; he astonished the Vauxhall doorkeeper 
by his harlequin trick, and took an interest in the 
various forms of insanity wdiich came before him. He 
mis^ht have become too sublimated in his feelings, or 
had his senses unsettknl (for he was an electrical appa- 
ratus), in contemplating the mysterious influences act- 
ino- on the minds of the deranged, for there is an 
attractive princijde as well as an adhesive principle in 
madness ; or a crowd of thoughts might have oppressed 
him, arising from the disaster which had occurred to 
him a few days before with the Boston audience, and 
the irreparable loss he had sustained in the plunder of 
his trunks and valuable papers, while journeying hither 
and tliither on his return to New York. We rejoiced 
together, however, when we found him again safely at 
home, atjiis old lodgings, at the City Hotel. I asked 
him in the evening how he studied the phases of dis- 
ordered intellect ; he replied, by the eye, as I control 
my lion. I cannot do better with this part of my 
subject than quote from an able article on Kean's 
Lear, as it appeared in Blackwood. Of this most 
genuine of his performances of Shakspeare, the writer 
says : " The genius of Shakspeare is the eternal rock 
on which the temple of this great actor's reputation 
must now rest ; and the ' obscene birds ' of criticism 
may try in vain to reach its summit and detile it, and 



155 

the restless waves of envy and ignorance may beat 
against its foundation unheeded, for their noise cannot 
be lieard so higli." 

There are a thousand stories afloat concerning 
Kean * I shall swell the number with one or two 
derived from personal knowledge. The criticisms of 
the American papers on his acting were little heeded 
by him ; he said after an actor has made a severe study 
of his character he feels himself beyond the animad- 
versions of the press. While here, however, a peri- 
odical was published by the poet Dana, called the 
" Idle Man." A number, in which his dramatic talents 
were analyzed, was placed in Kean's hand ; having 
read it deliberately, he exclaimed, with much gratifi- 
cation, " This writer understands me ; he is a philo- 
sophical man ; I shall take his work across the water." 
On several alternate nights he played the same round 
of characters with the distinguished Cooper ; and two 
parties were naturally created by it. lie soon saw 
that Cooper had his friends, and noticing the caption 
of the respective papers, after one or two successive 
days, he ordered his man Miller regularly to handle 
the opposition gazette with a pair of tongs, and con- 



* Tlio professional receipts of Keaa during his engagement in New 
York, were, I believe, ut least eqnal to those for a like number of nights 
wliich he received at the acme of his renown in London. His average in- 
come for some twelve or fifteen years was not less than ten thousand 
pounds per annum. He rescued Old Drury from bankruptcy, yet he is 
said to have been often in need, and died almost penniless. There was 
no one special extravagance chargeable to him ; but he was reckless in 
money matters, and figures entered not into his calculations. He had a 
helping hand for all applications. As in the case of Quin, the needy 
found in him a friend. The noble conduct of his son Charles is familiarly 
known; but no language can plead in extenuation of the deplorable prod- 
igality of the elder Xeau. 



156 

vey it away from his presence. He said lie never 
read attacks. 

Kean had early determined to erect a monument 
to the memory of the actor he most esteemed, George 
Frederick Cooke. We waited upon Bishop Hobart 
for permission to carry out the design. Kean struck 
the attention of the bishop by his penetrating eyes 
and his refined address. " You do not, gentlemen, 
wish the tablet inside St. Paul's V asked the bishop. 
"No, sir," I replied, "we desire to remove the remains 
of Mr. Cooke from the strangers' vault and erect a 
monument over them on some suitable spot in the 
burial-ground of the church. It will be a work of 
taste and durability." " You have my concurrence 
then," added he. But I hardly knew how we could 
find a place inside the church for Mr. Cooke." The 
monument was finished on the 4th of June, 1821, the 
day Mr. Kean terminated his first visit to America. 
He repaired in the afternoon to pay his last devotion 
to it. He was singularly pleased with the eulogistic 
lines on Cooke ; tears fell from his eyes in abundance, 
and as the evening closed he walked Broadway, lis- 
tened to the chimes of Ti'inity, returned again to the 
churchyard, and sang, sweeter than ever, " Those Eve- 
ning Bells," and " Come o'er the Sea." I gazed upon 
him with more interest than had ever before been 
awaked by his stage representations. I fancied (and 
it was not altogether fancy) that I saw a child of 
genius on whom the world at large bestowed its 
loftiest ])raises, while he himself was deprived of that 
solace which the world cannot give, the symj)athies of 
the heart. 

Towards the close of his second visit to America, 



157 

Kean made a tour throngli the northern part of the 
State, and visited Canada ; he fell in with the Indians, 
with whom he became delighted, and was chosen a 
chief of a tribe. Some time after, not aware of his 
return to the city, I received, at a late hour of the 
evening, a call to wait upon an Indian chief, by 
the name of Alautenaida, as the highly-finished card 
left at my house had it. Kean's ordinary card was 
Edmund Kean, engraved; he generally wrote under- 
neath, " Integer vitae scelerisque purus." I repaired to 
the hotel, and was conducted up stairs to the folding- 
doors of the hall, when the servant left me. I entered, 
aided by the feeble light of the room ; but at the re- 
mote end I soon perceived something like a forest of 
evergreens, lighted up by many rays from floor-lamps, 
and surrounding a stage or throne ; and seated in great 
state was the chief. I advanced, and a more terrific 
warrior I never surveyed. Red Jacket or Black Hawk 
was an unadorned, simple personage in comparison. 
Full dressed, with skins tagged loosely about his per- 
son, a broad collar of bear-skin over his shoulders, his 
leggings, with many stripes, garnished with porcu- 
pine quills ; his moccasons decorated with beads ; his 
head decked with the war-eagle's plumes, behind which 
flowed massive black locks of dishevelled horse-hair ; 
golden-colored rings pendant from the nose and ears ; 
streaks of yellow paint over the face, massive red 
daubiugs about the eyes, with various hues in streaks 
across the forehead, not very artistically drawn. A 
broad belt surrounded his waist, with tomahawk ; his 
arms, with shining bracelets, stretched out with bow 
and arrov/, as if ready for a mark. He descended his 
throne and rapidly approached me. His eye was 



158 

meteoric and fearful, like the furnace of the cyclops. 
He vociferously exclaimed, Alantenaida ! the vowels 
strong enough. I was relieved ; he betrayed some- 
thing of his raucous voice in imprecation. It was 
Kean. An explanation took place. He wished to 
know the merits of the representation. The Hurons 
had honored him by admission into their tribe, and he 
could not now determine whether to seek his final 
earthly abode with them for real happiness, or return 
to London, and add renown to his name by performing 
the Son of the Forest. I never heard that he ever 
afterwards attempted, in his own country, the charac- 
ter. He was wrought up to the highest pitch of en- 
thusiasm at the Indian honor he had received, and 
declared that even Old Drury had never conferred so 
proud a distinction on him as he had received from the 
Hurons. My visit was of some time. After pacing 
the room, with Indian step, for an hour or more, and 
contemplating himself before a large mirror, he was 
prevailed upon to change his dress and retire to rest. 
A day or two after, he sailed for Europe, with his 
Indian paraphernalia. 

I have said nothing of the intemperate habits, or of 
the extravagance and profuse liberality of Kean. That 
word intemperate is to be viewed in various lights, and 
with much qualification. The old proverb, that what 
is one man's food is another's poison, has much of fact 
in it. Viewing, moreover, intemperance as among the 
greatest calamities that afflict mortals, I should sadden 
in my soul if a word proceeded from my lips that 
might give it any quarters. But Mr. Kean's suscepti- 
bilities to impression were such that high excitement 
might follow two or three glasses of port. Mr. Grat- 



159 

taD has well described the progress of that coDdition 
in Kean, and I have observed, at several times, 
that those Latin citations of his were ominous. Yet I 
never saw Mr. Kean indulge in any drink whatever, 
until the labors of the drama were over. That he 
often at other times erred, I am ready to admit. 
Knox, an English actor, who played Glenalvon, de- 
manded two quarts of brandy to go through with that 
character in his stentorian way, and when I adminis- 
tered reproof to him, because of his inordinate indul- 
gence, he only replied it was just the right measure. 
John Reeve, according to manager Simpson, partook 
still more bountifully to carry through his broad farce ; 
but he was very bulky, and required almost a kilder- 
kin to saturate him. The benevolence of Kean, and 
his charities, were almost proverbs. Another noble 
attriluite characterized him : he was free of profes- 
sional envy, and lauded rising merit. All he asked 
was to be announced to the public in large letters. 
He prognosticated the career of Forest, after seeing 
his Othello once. I could not dismiss Kean with more 
brevity. He was a meteor in the dramatic firmament. 
I mio-ht have added much more. The classical Tuck- 
erman, in his Biographical Essays, has given us an 
admirable exposition of the philosophy of the man and 
his actino:, and Proctor has done well with liim, but 
might have done better. I shall say less of Mathews 
and Macready. 

Hemmed in as I am by time and circumstances, I 
am compelled to restrict my observations on Charles 
Mathews, a man of extraordinary faculties, who had 
secured a prodigious renown in his vocation ere his 
arrival in the American States, and which reputation 



IGO 

was increased by Lis public displays in this country. 
He was a remarkable specimen of what early training 
and study may accomplish. His very physical defects 
yielded to him special advantages. His close observa- 
tion, his susceptible nervous system, his half hypochon- 
driacal temperament, sharpened a natural acuteness, 
which, with uninterrupted devotion, led to results of 
the most commanding regard. If ever triumph was 
secured by speciality, it was eminently so in the case 
of Mathews. He studied occurrences with the severity 
of philosophical analysis. Attitudes, the lear of the 
eye, the motion of the lip, the crook of the fingers, the 
turn of the toe, the ringlet of a lock, intonation of 
voice, every demonstration of emotion or passion, came 
within the scope of his capabilities. The characteris- 
tics of divers nations marking every condition of varied 
life, from the dignity of the Plenipo to the servitude 
of the menial, were all caught by him, and you looked 
in turn to him for the verisimilitude of every delinea- 
tion he attempted. The brooding cadence of the coo- 
ing dove, and the hideous braying of the donkey, were 
equally at the command of his versatile talents. He 
was, in short, the master of mimic power, and used it 
with unparalleled effect. In comedy he was the acknow- 
ledged head in numerous parts. His Goldfinch is rep- 
resented to me, by experienced theatrical goers, to 
have surpassed that of Hodgkinson ; his Lord Ogilby, 
his Morbleau, his Coddle, and many other portraitures, 
still remain in vivid recollection. His " At Home " 
proved him, indeed, the actor of all work, and with 
the American community, yielding to the persuasions 
of friends, he evinced the extraordinary capacity that 
Othello could be enacted by him with signal success. 



161 

If it be asked how came Mathews the possessor of 
such rai-e gifts, I answer they were derived from a 
nervous susceptibility of the most impressible order, 
from intense study, and the cultivation of elegant 
literature. He read largely; he was quickened into 
observation by every phase of varied life, and his 
morbid constitution never forsook him, or tolerated 
indifference to suri-ounding objects. Like an homeo- 
pathic patient he was never well — always complaining, 
and ever on the look-out, with this difference, how- 
ever, that while the narcotized victim seems incessantly 
in search of physical improvement, Matthews seemed 
ever to be busy in intellectual progress. With the 
dexterity of an archer he aimed at characteristics^ 
wherever they might be found, and made the pecu- 
liarities of individuals the pledge of his skill. Abroad 
he sought out John Philpot Curran, and embodied 
both the manner and thoughts of the orator most 
faitlifully. In this country he looked out for the great 
Irish orator, Thomas Addis Emmet, and unconscious- 
ly, to the great pleader, took him to the life, in man- 
ner and in tone, with transcendent effect. Had that 
jurist lived in these latter days, with S2:)iritualism and 
clairvoyance running mad, he might have concluded 
himself to have been translated into some other in- 
dividuality. 

His arrival in New York occurred in September, 
1822; the yellow fever was prevailing. I received a 
kind note from that benevolent man, Simpson, the 
manager of the Park Theatre, to hasten on board a 
ship off' the harbor, in which was Mr. Mathews, in men- 
tal distress at the prospect of landing. The phenomena 
exhibited by his nervous temperament were most 



162 

striking : lie had been informed that one hundred and 
forty deaths had occurred on that da}^. Though some 
three miles off the battery, he felt, he affirmed, the 
pestilential air of the city ; every cloud came to him 
surcharged with mortality ; every wave imparted from 
the deep exhalations of destruction. He walked the 
deck, tottering, and in the extremest agitation. He 
refused to land at the city, and insisted upon finding 
shelter in some remote place. Hoboken was decided 
upon, and thither Mr. Simpson and myself accompanied 
him. Some two miles from the Jersey shore, on the 
road towards Hackensack, Mr. Simpson found lodgings 
for him in a rural retreat occupied by a gardener. 
Here Mathews passed the night walking to and fro 
in his limited apartment, ruminating on his probable 
departure within a few hours to the world of spirits. 
Hoboken, as it afforded him safety, as time proved, in 
his extreme distress, afterwards became his favorite 
spot for repose during his professional toil, and very 
often, after his theatrical duties were discharged, he 
w^as conveyed at midnight hour to that then beautiful 
localit}^ j^ot a few of the suggestions which crossed 
his mind in contemplating the American or Yankee 
character, w^ere here elaborated for his future graphic 
sketches in dramatic delineation. 

This great comedian was well stored with know- 
ledge, and cherished a heartfelt love for literary char- 
acters ; his visit to Edinburgh, and his acquaintance 
with Sir Walter Scott, Terry, and other eminent 
men of the stage, authors, and actors, and the social 
circle in domestic society, in which he held a part, led 
him to a liigh appreciation of intellectual pursuits. 
Our Cooper, our Irving, Halleck and Dunlap, were 



163 

among Lis favorite friends. With Dr. Hosack and the 
generous Philip Hone, he enjoyed many festive houi's. 
Mathews was the first individual, I heard, who gave 
a pretty decisive opinion that Scott was the author of 
the Waverley novels ; this was five years before the 
disclosure of the fact, by Sir Walter himself, at the 
Ballantyne dinner, and while we in New York were 
digesting the argument of Coleman, of the Evening 
Post, and his correspondents, who attempted to pi'ove 
that such could not be the truth, and that a Major 
or Col. Scott, of Canada, was the actual author. The 
adhesion to this belief was, I believe, never broken up 
in the mind of Coleman. But this pertinacity vras very 
characteristic, for what could you do with a man who 
contended through life that Bonaparte was no soldier ; 
that Priestley had done the world infinitely mo[-e harm 
than good ; that skullcap was a cei'tain specific for 
the cure of hydrophobia, and that yellow fever was as 
contagious as the plague of Aleppo ? And he held 
m£.ny for a while in his belief, for Coleman was pro- 
nounced by his advocates a field marshal in literature, 
as well as in politics. There was much of worldly 
prudence in the habits and demeanor of this renowned 
actor, and he who would comprehend the labors, self- 
denials, and toils of the successful competitor for his- 
trionic distinction, might profitably study the life of 
Mathews. He was the apostle of temperance and 
circumspection. 

Macready, having secured a provincial reputation, 
appeared on the London boards at that particular 
juncture in histrionic affairs when Kemble, Mrs. Sid- 
dons, and Young had left the stage, or were about to 
withdraw from the sphere of their labors, and when 



164 

Miss O'Neil was on the eve of closing her brilliant and 
most successful career. His reception was all that 
could be desired, and Kean, with his wonted liberality, 
applauded his talents. He soon assumed the Shak- 
spearian characters, and his Coriolanus, Richard the 
Third, Macbeth, and his lago, added vastly to his 
renown. The world, however, cannot always be de- 
voted to Shakspeare ; novelty is sought, and Macready 
presented a captivating example of it in his Rob Roy. 
He became the original representative of several of 
Sheridan Knowles' heroes, and his Caius Gracchus and 
William Tell gave still greater scope to his command- 
ing powers. In 1826 he visited New York, and won 
the homage of the severest critics, by his personation 
of the master characters of Shakspeare, which he had 
enacted in London. Upon his return to the United 
States in 1849, he still further swelled the tide of 
public approbation by his King Lear and his Richelieu. 
The disasters which disgraced our metropolis, by the 
occurrence of the Astor Opera House riot, are still 
fresh in memory, and need not be dwelt upon. On 
that memoi'able occasion Macready gave proofs abun- 
dant of his personal prowess and undaunted spirit. 
Mr. Macready has made three visits to the United 
States — in 1826, 1844, and 1849— and has been re- 
ceived at each visitation with an increased public 
approbation. 

To analyze the wide range of the drama which the 
professional life of Macready embraced, would be pre- 
sumptuous, and is not within our power ; we are, 
moreover, merely touching some of the leading inci- 
dents in the histrionic movements of this city, and are 
exempt from the obligations which an address to the 



165 

Dramatic Association miglit impose. Mr. Macready is 
less of a comedian than tragedian, but in this hitter, 
the materials are ample to demonstrate that, in the 
maturity of his faculties, his eificiency justly placed 
him at the head of the English stage. He cannot be 
entirely classed with the exclusive followers of nature, 
though he borrowed largely fi'om her resources ; and 
it would 1)6 unjust to his original powers to attribute 
his excellences to his adoption of the cold and formal 
school of actors. Hazlitt, a discriminating dramatic 
critic, pronounced him by far the best tragic actor 
that had come out, with the exception of Kean. But 
Mr. Macready has other and higher claims to our re- 
gard and esteem. He studied and enacted Shakspeare 
less for objects of pecuniary result than to bring out 
for increased admiration the matchless beauties and 
the deep philosophy of the great author in the purity 
of his own incomparable diction ; and he made corre- 
sponding efforts to eradicate the corruptions which an- 
notators and playwrights have introduced. He loathed 
the clap-traps of sentiment with which the stage was so 
often burthened. He was restless with the commen- 
tators. The bloated reputation of Gibber's interpola- 
tions he decried, and felt anguish at the innovations of 
even Dry den and Massinger. They were obstacles to 
the true worship of Shakspeare, and he deemed it im- 
perative that they be overcome. We should hold no 
parley, he said, with critics who could pilfer an absur- 
dity, and then profanely saddle it on Shakspeare. As- 
suredly he deserves all praise for his unceasing toil 
and his noble ambition. 

Mr. Macready has been ever scrupulously careful 
about assuming a part in plays which tended to the 



166 

exaltation of the baser passions, and the increase of 
licentiousness. The regularity of his own life added 
to the self-gratification he enjoyed from so scrupulous 
a line of conduct in his professional duty. Believing 
that a great ethical principle for the improvement of 
morals and the diffusion of knowled^'e resided in the 
stage, he, above all things, wished Shakspeare to be 
exhibited as he is, unencumbered witli the tra])pings 
of other minds, and I have little doubt that in his 
happy retirement he finds solace in the conduct he 
adopted. Elegant letters occupy a portion of the 
leisure hours which Mr. Macready has at command 
since his withdrawal from theatrical toil, and the jour- 
nals have recently noticed with commendation the 
efforts he is engaged in to enlarge the empire of 
thought and morals by promoting the establishment 
of public schools. lie virtually, if recent reports be 
true, is at this present period a voluntary teaclier of 
morals and science. His philanthropy has created a 
school for the rising generation, and even fur maturer 
years, at his beautifal retreat, at Sherborne, in Dorset- 
shire. Whatever may have been the vicissitudes and 
trials which have oppressed at times the course of his 
honorable life, he will assuredly find an adequate 
recompense in the benevolent and grateful pursuits 
which now absorb so largely liis experienced intellect. 
His late lecture on poetry, and its influence on popu- 
lar education, delivered before the British Athenaeum, 
has been read by thousands with the strongest ap- 
proval. 

I shall close these fragmentary observations on the 
drama and the players, with a quotation from a judi- 
cious criticism on the edition of Shakspeare lately pub- 



167 

llsbed, with numerous annotations, by tbe Rev. H. N. 
Hudson. Few will dissent from the closing remai'ks 
of the al)le writer. Mr. Gould observes : " We cannot 
forbear a passing remark on the disappearance of the 
theatrical representatives of Shakspeare, just at the 
point of time when his text, in its highest attainable 
purity, is restored to the world. Garrick, Kemble, 
^iddons, Cooke, Kean, and Macready, for the greater 
part of a century, practically expounded the language 
of the poet ; and the genius of the actor, co-operating 
with the genius of the author, unfolded to five succes- 
sive generations the living realities of Shakspeare's 
power. These six luminaries have now all passed 
away; Macready alone surviving to enjoy in retire- 
ment the homage due to his public talents and private 
virtues. The loss of these great actors is the more to 
be deplored, because their art dies with them, and 
hence it is not strange that, wdth their professional 
exit, the drama itself should have declined. Shak- 
speare is immortal in the library; but on the stage 
probal)ly few men now living will see him resusci- 
tated." 

Were my individual feelings to be consulted, I 
would fain dwell at some length on the introduction of 
the Garcia Italian opera troy]}e in this city as an his- 
torical occurrence in intellectual progress of permanent 
interest. It was destined to create new feelings, to 
awaken new sentiments in the circle of refined and 
social life, aud its mission I believe is accomplished. 
The opera, whatever may be the disputes touching its 
origin, was known to be the offspring of genius. It had 
universal approval as an exalted mental recreation to 
recommend it ; its novelty here secured prompt atten- 



168 

tion to its claims, and its troupe of artists wlio honored 
"US with their entree were considered the recognized 
professors of tlie highest order in the art. It capti- 
vated the eye, it charmed the ear, it awakened the pro- 
foundest emotions of the heart. It paralyzed all 
further eulogiums on the casual song-singing hereto- 
fore interspersed in the English comedy, and rendered 
the popular airs of the drama which had possession of 
the feelings, the lifeless materials of childish ignorance. 
Something, perhaps, was to be ascribed to f;ishional)le 
emotion, for this immediate popular ascendency. For 
this advantageous accession to the resources of mental 
gratification, we were indebted to the taste and refine- 
ment of Dominick Lynch, the liberality of the manager 
of the Park Theatre, Stephen 'Price, and the distin- 
guished reputation of the Venetian, Lorenzo Da Ponte. 
Lynch, a native of New York, was the acknowledged 
head of the fashionable and festive board, a gentleman 
of the ton, and a melodist of great powers and of ex- 
quisite taste ; he had long striven to enhance the cha- 
racter of our music ; he was the master of English 
song, but ho felt from his close cultivation of music and 
his knowledge of the genius of his countrymen, that 
much was wanting, and that more could l)e accom- 
plished, and he sought out, while in Euro2:>e, an Italian 
troupe^ which his persuasive eloquence and the liberal 
spirit of Price led to embark for our shores, where they 
arrived in November, 1825. The old Italian poet and 
composer of the libretto of Don Giovanni and Le Nozze 
di Figaro, the associate of Mozart, was here in this city 
to greet them, and on the night of 29th of October, 
1825, at the Park Theatre, we listened to II Barbiere 
de Seviglie of the matchless Kossini. 



169 

More was realized by the immense multitude who 
filled the house than had been anticipated, and the 
opera ended with an universal shout of hravo, hravis- 
simo. The city reverberated the acclamations. The 
indomitable energy of Garcia, aided by his melodious 
strains and his exhaustless powers, the bewitching 
talents of his daughter, the Signorina Garcia, with her 
artistic faculties as an actress, and her flights of inspira- 
tions, the novelty of her conception, and her captivat- 
ing person, proved that a galaxy of genius in a novel 
vocation unknown to the New World, demanded now its 
patronage. To these primaiy personages, as making 
up the roll, were added Angrisani, whose bass seemed 
as the peal of the noted organ at Haerlem ; Rosich, a 
buflPo of great resources ; Crevelli, a promising debu- 
tante ; the younger Garcia, with Signora Garcia, and 
Madame Barbiere with her capacious tenor, constitut- 
ing a musical phalanx which neither Loudon nor Paris 
could surpass, nay, at that time could not equal. From 
the moment that first night's entertainment closed, I 
looked upon the songs of Phillips (which had made 
Coleman, the editor, music-mad), the melodies of 
Moore, and even the ballads of Scotland, as shorn of 
their popularity, and even now I think myself not 
much in error in holding to the same opinion. The 
Italian opera is an elaboration of many thoughts, of 
intellisfence extensive and various ; while it assimilates 
itself by its harmonious construction and entirety, it 
becomes effective by external impression and rational 
combination. It blends instruction with delight ; if 
it does not make heroes, it at least leads captive the 
noblest attributes of humanity ; and had a larger fore- 
thought and wiser government watched over its des- 
12 



170 

tinies, it might still exist in its attractive displays as a 
permanent institution in this enlightened and liberal 
metropolis 

I must add a few words on that great Maestro, 
Garcia. It is true that his vast reputation is secured 
for the future by his biographer; he was a successful 
teacher, a composer of many operas, and his merits as 
a performer are fresh in the recollections of the ope- 
ratic world ; but it is sometimes profitable to cast a 
backward glance over what we have lost. He was a 
native of Seville, reared in Spanish music, and in fulfil- 
ling his part in that role with enthusiam, was summon- 
ed in 1809 to Paris, where he was the first Spanish 
musician that appeared in that capital. Garat, on hear- 
ing him, exclaimel, "The Andalusian purity of the 
man makes me all alive." Prince Murat chose him as 
first tenor of his own chapel in 1812, at Naples. Cata- 
lini obtained him for her first tenor, 181G, in Paris. 
Here Rossini saw him and arranged afiairs so that he 
appeared in the Barber of Seville, of which he was 
the original representative. He visited England in 
181 7, where his wonderful powers were still higher ex- 
tolled, from his Othello and his Don Juan. In Paris 
our New York friend Lynch found him, and profl:ered 
inducements for him to visit America. Here his com- 
bined qualities as singer and actor, have never been 
equalled; his Othello, for force, just discrimination, 
and expression, astounding the beholder, and filling the 
house with raptures. His career in Mexico followed ; 
and sad to relate, while on his return to Vera Cruz, he 
was beset by banditti, stripped of his clothing, and 
plundered of his 1000 oz. of gold (about ] 7,000 dollars 
of our money), the results of his severe earnings : pen- 



171 

niless he finally readied Paris, to resume his profes- 
sional labors. His spirits failed him not, but his 
musical powers were on the wane, and being the first 
to detect the decline of his great talents, and too honest 
to pass a counterfeit oiote^ he left the operatic boards 
and died in 1836, aged fifty-eight. 

From the sixth year of his age, and through life, 
Garcia was the arbiter of his own fortunes. He may 
be pronounced the restorer of Mozart and the promul- 
gator of Eossini's matchless works. His daughter, 
afterwards Madame Malibran, eclipsed even the talents 
of her father ; and her abilities are still a popular topic 
of conversation. She had the rare gift of possessing 
the contralto and the soprano. Her ardor, both as 
actress and as singer, exhibited almost a frantic enthu- 
siasm. Animated by the lofty consciousness of genius, 
the novelty of her conceptions, her vivid pictures, her 
inexhaustible spirits had in no predecessor in her call- 
ing ever been equalled. She had no Farinelli for an 
instructor, but the tremendous energy, not to say sever- 
ity of her fether, brought out the foculties of her voice 
to the wonder of all who heard her. She may be said 
to have been consumed by the fire of her own genius. 
Her " Una Voce " and other airs reached the highest 
point of instrumentation, according to the opinion of 
the most astute judges. She has been followed by no 
imitator, because none could approach her. Recently 
with Alboni and Jenny Lind we have had a partial 
echo of her. Perhaps her ravishing person served to 
swell the tide of public approbation of her ravishing 
voice. She enchained eyes and ears. Her earlier (not 
her earliest) eflbrts were first appreciated at the Park 
Theatre, and the predictions there uttered of her ulti- 



172 

mate victories, were fully verified on her return to 
England. So far American appreciation did honor to 
the then state of musical culture with the New 
Yorkers. 

In my medical capacity I became well acquainted 
with the Garcia troupe ; they possessed good constitu- 
tions and took little physic ; but what I would aim at 
in the few remarks I have yet to make is, to show that 
those who are not artists little know the toil demanded 
for eminent success in the musical world. Some twelve 
or sixteen houi's' daily labor may secure a medical man 
from want in this city of great expenses and moderate 
fees ; more than that time may earnestly be devoted 
for many years to secure the fame of a great opera 
singer. It seemed to me that the troupe were never 
idle. They had not crossed the Atlantic twenty-four 
hours ere they were at their notes and their instru- 
ments, and when we add their public labors at the 
theatre, more than half of the twenty-four houi's was 
consumed in their pursuit. A President of the United 
States or a Lord Chancellor methinks might be easier 
reared than a Malibran. I dismiss all allusion to na- 
ture's gifts and peculiar aptitudes. It is assumed that 
brains are demanded in all intellectual business. The 
simplicity of life, and the i)rescribed temperance of 
these musical people, was another lesson taught me. 
How many things are attended to lest the voice may 
suffer. A taste of claret, a glass of lemonade, eau 
sucree, were all the drinks tolerated, and scarcely a par- 
ticle of animal food until the opera was over, when, at 
midnight, a comfortable supper refreshed their ex- 
hausted spirits and gave repose to their limbs. The 
youth who aims at distinction in physic, in law, or in 



173 

diviiiit}^, and wlio is at all cursed with indolence, niiglit 
profit by studying the lives of these masters in song, 
as the naturalist philosophizes with the habits of the 
bee. 

Many of this assembly, and particularly the ladies 
who now grace this audience, must well remember their 
old teacher, Signor Lorenzo Da Ponte, so long a pro- 
fessor of Italian literature in Columbia College, the 
stately nonogenarian whose w^hite locks so richly or- 
namented his classical front and his graceful and ele- 
gant person. He foils within the compass of this 
imperfect address from his " lonely conspicuity," for 
the taste he cherished, and the industry he displayed 
in the cultivation of Italian letters, more than two 
thousand scholars having been initiated in the language 
of Italy by him, and he is still more interwoven with 
our theme by his enthusiastic efforts to establish the 
Italian opera with us. He was upwards of sixty years 
of age upon his arrival in America, but enjoyed sturdy 
manhood. His credentials to consideration challenged 
the esteem of the philosopher, the poet, and the man 
of letters. His long and eventful life deserves an 
ample record. His own Memoirs in part supply our 
wants, and the sketch of his life by one of the members 
of our Historical Society, Samuel Ward, is a grateful 
tribute to his character, from the pen of an accom- 
plished scholar and competent judge of his peculiar 
merits. I enjoyed the acquaintance of Da Ponte some 
twenty years. Kelly, in his reminiscences, has given 
us some idea of his early personal appearance and his 
fanciful costume at the London opera. But his glory 
and inward consolation had not b(!en attained until the 
Garcia troupe triumphed at New York, as ci-st at Vi- 



enna, in Don Giovanni. The language of Italy and 
her music were deeply-rooted in his heart. It was a 
day of lofty thought for the old patriarch, says his 
American biographer, when came among us Garcia 
with his lovely daughter, then in the morning of her 
renown ; Rosich, the inimitable buffo ; Augrisani with 
his tomb note, and Madame Barbiere, all led by our 
lamented Almaviva.''^ I must refer to the able articles 
on the introduction of the opera, written by a philo- 
sophical critic in the New York Review and Athe- 
neum Magazine for December, 1825. They constitute 
a record of the social progress of this city that cannot 
be overlooked. Da Ponte died in New York in Au- 
gust, 1838, at ninety years. His remains were followed 
to the grave by many of our most distinguished citi- 
zens, among whom were the venerable Clement C. 
Moore, the Hon. G. C. Verplanck, Pietro Maroncelli, the 
fellow-prisoner of Sylvio Pellico, &g. That his long 
life created no wasting infirmity of mind was shown in 
a striking manner by his publication of a portion of 
the poet Ilillhou^e's Hadad, not long before his final 
illness, and which he beautifully rendered in Italian 
with scholastic fidelity. The day before his death he 
honored me with a series of verses in his native tongue, 
partly, I concluded, in token of gratitude, and partly to 
evince to his friends, that though speech had nigh left 
him his mind was still entire. He died firm in the 
Catholic faith, and was buried in the Roman Catholic 
cemetery. Second Avenue. 

Vicissitudes had made Da Ponte a great observer 
of life ; his intimate associations with Mozart, the 
countenance and encouragement he received from 

* Dominick Lynch, Esq. 



17o 

Joseph II., his acquaintance with Metastasio, the lyric 
poet and writer of operas and dramas in Italy, are 
prominent among the events of his earlier career, at 
which time he established his reputation as a melo- 
dramatist. It was easy to perceive, after a short in- 
terview with him, that his capacious intellect was filled 
with bookish wisdom. He had recitals at command 
for the diversity of society in which he chanced to be. 
He loved his beautiful Italy and was prolific in praise 
of her authors. He extolled Caldani and Scarpa, and 
had many charming stories concerning the great illus- 
trator of sound and morl^id anatomy, Morgagni. Da 
Ponte attended the last course of instruction im- 
parted by that pre-eminent philosopher, who had then 
been professor some sixty years. On that memorable 
occasion, when Morgagni was to meet his class for the 
last time, he summoned his cara sposa^ Signora Mor- 
gagni, a lady of noble family, and his surviving children, 
some ten out of fifteen whom she had blessed him with, 
and forming with them a group around his person, he 
pronounced a benediction on the University and on his 
class, and then appealed to his venerable wife for the 
fidelity of his domestic life, and to his children as the 
tokens of her love and afiectiou. He was now in his 
ninetieth year. Da Ponte said he was never more in 
earnest, never more powerful, never more eloquent. 
Padua then lost the brightest teacher of anatomical 
knowledge the world possessed, and the University a 
name in its possession high above all others, which 
commanded the admiration of the cultivators of real 
science wherever the dignity and utility of medicine 
was appreciated. I am aware I have trespassed be- 
yond my proper limits in this notice, but it was diffi- 



176 

cult to do otherwise. Perhaps at this very day, casting 
a look over the many schools of medicine established 
in this land, there is not an individual oftener men- 
tioned in the courses of practical instruction, on certain 
branches, than Moi'gagui, though now dead more than 
two generations. I wished to draw a moral from the 
story, cheering to the devoted student in his severe 
toils to qualify him for medical responsibility. Mor- 
gagni, besides great professional acquisitions, was a 
master of elegant literature, an antiquarian of research, 
a proficient in historical lore. The learned associations 
of every order in Europe enrolled him as a member. 
His numerous writings, full of original discoveries, are 
compressed in five huge folios, and are consulted as a 
treasury of established facts on a thousand subjects. 
To his resj^ousible duties, involving life and death, he 
superadded for more than sixty years his university 
teachings, and died at ninety with his mental faculties 
entire. How was the miracle wrought ? In the pres- 
sure of herculanean labors, if ennui ever dared to ap- 
proach, an Italian lyric of Metastasio was all-sufiicient 
for relief. By proper frugality he secured property ; 
by a regular life he preserved health ; by system and 
devotion he secured his immortal renown. 

Thus much may sufiice as an historical record of 
the introduction of the Italian opera in New York, and, 
consequently, in the United States. Let the undis- 
puted honor belong to this city. It needs no pro- 
phetic vision to foresee that time will strengthen its 
power, culture render it more and more popular, and 
that its destiny is fixed among the noblest of the Fine 
Arts among us. It might add pleasure to this occa- 
sion, did time allow, to state particulars concerning the 



177 

several opera companies wliicli have favored us with 
their presence and their skill since the Garcia period : 
the Pedrotte company, that of Montressor, with Forna- 
sari, and the memorable displays of Sontag, Caradori 
Allen, Grisi and Alboni : the triumphs and career of 
Ole Bull and of Jenny Lind would also enrich a nar- 
rative of such transactions with the liveliest incidents 
in proof of the liberality of the patrons of this intel- 
lectual and refining recreation in our metropolis. 
That cultivated gentleman and scholar, Robert Win- 
throp, in his Address, lately delivered at the opening 
of the grand musical festival at the Music Hall, has 
assigned to Boston the execution of the first oratorio 
in this country, and his researches are curious and 
instructive in the history of music. It would seem, 
from his antiquarian details, that the most memorable 
concert was given at King's Chapel on the 27th of 
October, 1789, on occasion of the visit of George 
Washinofton to Boston as the first President of the 
United States. Like a philosopher of true sentiment, 
Mr. Winthi'op, among many felicitous observations, 
remarks, " What a continued and crowded record does 
the history of the world's great heart present of the 
noble sympathies which have been stirred, of the 
heroic impulses which have been awakened, of the 
devotional fires which have been kindled, of the love 
of God and love to man, and love of country, to which 
animation and utterance have b'een given by the magic 
power of music." This seems to me the true feeling of 
a man properly indoctrinated. I have heard language 
of like import proceed from the lips of John Quincy 
Adams ; and Carlyle has said that music is the speech 
of angels, and that nothing among the utterances 
allowed to man is felt to be so divine. 



178 

I pass on to say a few words in relation to the pro- 
gress among us of another branch of wbat is strictly 
denominated the Fine Arts and the Arts of Desisfn. 
Admonished by the critical observations of Sir Arthur 
Martin Shee, that there is, perhaps, no topic so unman- 
ageable as that of the arts in the hands of those who 
bring to its discussion only the superficial acquirements 
of amateur taste, I shall exercise a wise prudence in my 
limited notice of the subject. ' Antiquarian research will 
in vain find any proofs of the Fine Arts existing in this 
city ere the lapse of more than a century from its 
first settlement, and then the evidences of any thing 
like an approach towards their encouragement are 
hardly worth the notice. Our sedate and conservative 
Dutch ancestors were content with the architectural 
displays of the old-fashioned gable brick residence, the 
glazed tile roof, and the artificial china square plate, 
enriched with grotesque illustrations of dykes and wind- 
mills, and the prodigal son, as ornaments for the ample 
mantel and fire-jams. I have not forgotten the ten 
commandments thus illustrated as decorations of the 
fireplace in the humble suburban dwelling near the 
head of Pearl street, where I passed my earlier days, 
at that period of childhood when I studied with over- 
flowing tears the mournful story of Cock Robin. Of 
the architecture of their churches or houses of worship, 
I have nothing now to say — the trespass would be too 
great. 

' About a century ago might be found, scattered 
here and there, as household decorations, portraits by 
Smybert, Copley, Pine, and old Charles W. Peale, of 
blessed memory, and still later, several by West, and 
many by Stuart. Our Jarvis, Inman, and Dunlap, are 



179 

of quite a recent date. I have seen tlie portraits of 
the Hunters of Rhode Island, by Smybert ; and the 
Washington by Pine, in the possession of the late 
Henry Brevoort. Smybert, considering the state of 
the arts at that time, possessed more than ordinary 
merit ; and Fine, of whom I have often heard Pintard 
speak, has secured a peculiar reputation for fidelity in 
portraiture and excellence in coloring. In speaking of 
Smybert, our associate member, the venerable Ver- 
planck remarks, that " he was not an artist of the first 
rank, for the arts were then at a very low ebb in 
England, but the best portraits which we have of the 
eminent maojistrates and divines of New Ens-land and 
New York, who lived between 1Y25 and 17 -51, are 
from his pencil. Trumbull calls Smybert the patriarch 
of painting in America." Smybert was by birth a 
Scotchman. " He was the first educated artist who 
visited our shores," says Mr. Tuckerman. To his 
pencil New England is indebted for portraits of many 
of her early statesmen and clergy. Among others, he 
painted for a Scotch gentleman the only authentic 
likeness of Jonathan Edwards.*,^ It was the extreme 
value at which Pintard estimated the productions of 
Pine, that led him to search so earnestly for the lost 
portraits of the Golden family by that artist, which 
you have in your gallery, and we have lately seen the 
value of his Garrick, from a perusal of Verplanck's 
interesting letter on the subject, published in the 
"Crayon," a periodical under the editorship of the 
great artist, Durand. The well-preserved portrait of 
Dr. Ogilvie, of Trinity Church, and now in their col- 

* Biographical Essays, article Berkeley. 



180 

lection, is, I believe, by Piue. We have, therefore, 
evidences of his great merits to be seen in many places. 
Pintard represented to me that Pine was a little fellow, 
active, assiduous, and ambitious to excel. He had re- 
ceived great countenance from the family of the Hop- 
kinsons, of Philadelphia. 

We find no statuary at this early date as orna- 
mental to our city, if we except that of the elder Pitt, 
which stood at the junction of Wall and William 
streets, and the leaden figure of George III., in the 
Bowling Green, both destroyed by popular violence in 
the incipient troubles of the Revolution. 

An approach to a loftier encouragement of the 
Fine Arts was manifested by our civil authorities in 
the selection of the great American historical artist, 
the late Col, Trumbull, who was employed to execute, 
in 1790, the two life-sized paintings of Washhigton and 
of George Clinton, the revolutionary general. If we ex- 
cept the Sortie of Gibraltar, by the same artist, they 
may be pronounced emphatically the great works of 
this distinguished painter. I have often heard the 
richest praises bestowed on these artistic productions, 
for their remarkable fidelity to tlie originals, by our 
old patriots, who frequently honored them with a visit, 
and who personally w^ere well acquainted with the 
subjects. I can easily imagine the feelings which 
glowed in the breast of this long-tried patriot and as- 
sociate of the men of the revolutionary crisis when 
occupied with these celebrated paintings, and how the 
workings of the soul prompted every effort to secure 
satisfaction in the result.; Our faithful Lossing's remarks 
on this work of Trumbull correspond with what I have 
again and again heard uttered by the men of '76. During 



181 

his whole life Trumbull seems to have been con- 
ti'ollecl by tbe highest motives of patriotism in order 
to perpetuate the historical occurrences of his native 
country ; to secure for posterity faithful and character- 
istic likenesses of our American heroes and statesmen, 
seems to have been the ultimate desire of his heart 
regardless of labor or expense. Great, indeed, would 
have been our misfortune deprived of his pictorial 
delineations of revolutionary times, and the graphic 
exhibitions of his ])rolific pencil of the men of the Eight 
Years' War. 

This accomplished scholar, enlightened and un- 
swerving patriot, eminent artist and delineator of Ame- 
rican history, closed his honorable career in New York, 
in 1843, in the eighty-eighth year of his age. He was 
conspicuous among the old school gentlemen then 
among us. A few days before his death he accepted 
the presidency of the Washington Monument Asso- 
ciation, recently organized in this city. He readily 
gave his countenance to the work. I attended him in 
his last illness, in consultation with his excellent phy- 
sician, the late Dr. Washington, and it is curious to 
remark that the last word he distinctly uttered, on 
his dying bed, was Washington, referring to the father 
of his country, a name often on his lips. 

It hardly falls within my design to enlarge in this 
place on the character and services of Col. TrumbulL 
The Reminiscences which he published give us the 
events most prominent in his career. A genuine love 
of country, a noble devotion to her interests in times 
of deep adversity, a patriotic ardor which led him, in 
season and out of season, amidst almost insuperable dif- 
ficulties and perils to rescue the fleeting and precious 



182 

materials which mii;ht give additional interest to her 
annals, entitle him to the admiration of all future 
time. We already see that the lapse of each suc- 
cessive day gives increased value to his labors for the 
^student of American history. \ The arrival from Europe 
of that consummate genius, Gilbert Stuart, and his 
settlement in New York, in 1793, constitute another 
era in the progress of the Fine Ai'ts among us. This 
remarkable man soon found his talents appreciated and 
called in requisition, and crowds of sitters delighted 
with his artistic abilities. Many of his portraits of 
that period are still to be found in the residences of 
our older families in this city. Stuart remained but 
a short while with us, yet that brief time was propi- 
tious to the arts. He had left the old world prompted 
by a noble impulse, and his desire to paint Washington 
was so great as to cause him to leave for Philadelphia 
to gratify his feelings, and it is, perhaps, not saying 
too much, that vast as is the inherent glory which en- 
circles the name of the spotless patriot, the merits of 
that standard and unrivalled portrait by Stuai't, have 
augmented even the renown of the father of his country. 

The arts of design were promoted by the assiduous 
labors of Rembrandt Peale, a devoted scholar and an 
artist of wide renown, whose Court of Death is among 
the troj)hies of the pencil ; and by Sharpless, of New 
York, Avhom I became Avell acquainted with in his after 
life. His likenesses, in crayon, won general commenda- 
tion, and justice to his memory demands that he be 
l^laced in the foremost ranks of successful portrait- 
painters. The same remarks will honestly apply to 
Alexander Robertson. 

In sculpture, at and about this time, Houdon and 



183 

Carraclii gave proofs of their mastery iu tlieir profes- 
sional line. 

Such was the jilatform on which the Fine Arts 
rested, when a number of the friends of liberal cultui'e 
and elegant pursuits contemplated, the organization of 
the first association in this city, under the name of the 
New York Academy of Fine Arts, in 1801. In 1808 
it received the act of incorporation under tlie name of 
the American Academy of Fine Arts, and Chancellor 
Livington was chosen President, Col. John Trumbull, 
Vice-President ; Dewitt Clinton, David Ilosack, John 
R. Murray, William Cutting,'and Charles Wilkes, di- 
rectors. If we add the names of C. D. Colden, Edward 
Livingston, and Kobert Fulton, we include in this enu- 
meration tlie leading New Yorkers who, for years, 
were lil)eral in their patronage to pi'omote the under- 
taking. Tlirougii the instrumentality of the American 
minister at the court of France, Napoleon made a 
valuable gift to the institution of many busts, antique 
statues, and rare prints. I can dwell but a moment 
longer on the fortunes of this Academy. After several 
years of trial and neglect it was revived in 181G. Cer- 
tain paintings of West, which for a time were added 
to its collections through tlje kindness of Robert Ful- 
ton, sustained it for a few years longer from dissolution, 
while the several addresses of Clinton, Ilosack, and 
Trumbull gave it for a season additional popularity. With 
the downfall of the American Academy, the National 
Academy of Design took its rise about 1828. S. F. B. 
Morse, he who has recently become so famous by his 
invention of the electric telegraph, was elected Presi- 
dent, and the constitutional provisions of this associa- 
tion being far more acceptable to the feelings and 



J 84 

views of a large majority of the artists than the old 
Academy favored, it has proved an eminently successful 
corporation and has aided in numerous ways the pro- 
motion of its specified objects, the Arts of Design. The 
devotion given to this institution by Thomas S. Cum- 
mings, in the instruction he for a series of years has im- 
parted to students of art in the life and antique school, 
has also proved a constant source of gratification and 
improvement to the pupil in this elegant pursuit. 

He who is solicitous to study historically the sub- 
ject of the Fine Arts in this city, and to know their 
progress in other cities of the Union, will consult the 
work of William Dunlap, a writer of patient research, 
and abating the influence of occasional prejudice, a 
reliable authority. And could I, like Sir Walter 
Raleigh, compress the history of the world in a volume, 
I should record many things more amply, and be will- 
ing to take some notice of the Apollo Association, 
which, shortly after its formation, merged into the 
American Art Union, and which for a series of years 
exerted a wholesome influence in the diftusion of an 
improved taste, which was no less conducive to the 
fiscal advantage of those ingenious men most interested 
in the popularity of their important calling. If it be 
asked have the Fine Arts, during the incorporation of 
our Historical Society, advanced in this city under the 
countenance of these several institutions, it may be 
safely responded to in the aflSrmative. Great and dis- 
tinctive as may have been the individual merits of 
many adepts, such as Allston,Vanderlyn, Peale, Durand, 
Cole, Waldo, Jarvis, Inman, Mount, Stearns, and others ; 
by association a still greater power was wielded and 



185 

successfully carried into operation in behalf of this 
branch of refined knowledge. 

It is not to be concealed that some of our artists 
pursue their calling chiefly to secure a livelihood, yet 
there are many others who cherish a higher ideal ; im- 
bued with the greatest earnestness, patience, and faith, 
they have striven to comprehend the secrets of nature 
and achieve more than a temporary fame, the con- 
sciousness of original research and inspiration- In the 
enumeration of this class of painters, I would j)lace 
A. H. Wenzler, so familiarly known by his unrivalled 
miniatures. For years his studies have been directed 
to the philosophy of colors. I borrow in part the 
language of a classical writer on art, who appears to 
comprehend the subject. " Mr. Wenzler has been con- 
vinced," (says this acute write]',) " that the illusion of 
distance, so requisite to landscape-painting, is not to be 
realized by perspective lines, but by the gradation of 
tints so obvious to nature. In order to demonstrate 
this, he has merely depicted in rough the material ob- 
jects of a landscape — trees, rocks, a stream, a church, 
and a meadow, and over the whole, including a range 
of hills in the background, thrown these naturally 
graduated tints, from the prismatic rays in the imme- 
diate vicinity of the sun, to the cool light of the dis- 
tant earth : the efl^ect is exactly like nature ; you imagine 
yourself gazing through an open window upon an ac- 
tual scene ; the distances throughout the picture are so 
natural that we feel, for the first time in art, an harmo- 
nious and complete aerial perspective. It opens a new 
sphere of artistic truth, and vindicates a hitherto un 
acknowledged Jaw ; it embodies in theory what Turner 
aimed at." / An accomplished writer on the state of art 
13 



186 

ill the United States, Dr. Betliiine, in Putnam's Home 
Book of the Picturesque, in adverting to the hindrances 
which have operated on the progress of the Fine Arts 
in tlie early condition of America, has beautifully and 
truthfully expressed himself in these words: ''Under 
the pressure of cares and struggles and urgent anxie- 
ties, there would be neither time nor desire for the 
cultivation of these elegant pursuits, which are the 
luxury of leisure, the decoration of wealth, and the 
charms of refinement. The Puritans and the Presby- 
terians together, the most influential, were not favor- 
able to the fine arts, and the Quakers abjured them. 
Men living in log cabins and busied all day in fields, 
workshop, or warehouse, and liable to attacks by 
savage enemies at any moment, were indisposed to seek 
after or encourage what was not immediately useful. 
Their hard-earned and jn-ecarious gains would not jus- 
tify the indulgence. There were few, or rather no 
specimens of artistic skill among them to awaken taste 
or imitation. It is, therefore, little to be wondered at 
if they did not show an appreciation of art propor- 
tionate to their advance in other moral respects, or 
that they waited until they had secured a substantial 
prosperity l)efore they ventured to gratify themselves 
with the beautiful. The brilliant examples of West 
and Copley, with some others of inferior note, showed 
the presence of genius, but those artists found abroad 
the encouragement and instruction not attainable at 
home, thus depriving their country of all share in their 
fame, excejjt the credit of having given them birth." 

I incline strongly to the opinion that our country is 
destined to great distinction in the arts of design, as 
she is already acknowledged to excel in many of the 



187 

most prominent and important of the mechanical arts^^ 
There is a genius throughout the hind developing itself 
in these elevated pursuits. In steam navigation what 
has she not accomplished since the mighty innovation 
of Fulton ? in naval architecture where has she a rival ? 
Where shall I find room for an enumeration of her 
thousand discoveries and improvements (not notions) 
in mechanics, in the arts of husl)andry, in that art of 
arts, printing, and in the lightning press of Hoe ? In 
sculpture she presents a Greenongh, a Powers, a Frazee, 
a Clavenger, a Brown, and her wondrous Crawford, a 
native of this city. In painting, how rarely have hap- 
pier displays of genius been furnished in modern time, 
than are given us by Durand, Weir, Elliot, Hunting- 
ton, Bogle, Hicks, and Church. Had we room we might 
feel ourselves ennobled in contemplating the individual 
triumphs and merits of the devoted disciples of the fine 
arts our country has produced ; but this undertaking- 
is not at present at all imperative. The classical 
volume of Mr. Tuckerman, entitled " Artist Life," 
will prove an advantageous work to all who study the 
achievements of American genius and philosophize on 
its peculiar powers. 

A striking characteristic of New York which re- 
flects signal honor on the benevolence and humanity of 
her people, was early visible in her civic progress. The 
wholesome axioms of her primitive Dutch settlers and 
her cultivated Huguenots, soon led to the formation of 
schools for the cultivation of knowledge and the ad- 
vancement of sound morals ; and shortly after the 
commencement of her career, indeed as far back as the 
year 161)9, when her population scarcely exceeded six 
thousand, Dr. McCready in his late historical address 



188 

assures us, on the authority of our city's Chronicler, 
David Valentine, that the poor received partial relief 
in their own houses or in lodgings specially provided. 
Some twenty years after, an almshouse was erected 
near the spot where the City Hall now stands. This 
institution held its locality for some seventy years or 
more ; with the collateral aid of a dispensary, which 
owed its origin cliiefly to Dr. John Bard, the indigent 
found succor and relief. The almshouse yielded 
medical instruction by the clinical talents of Dr. Wil- 
liam Moore, Dr. llichard S. Kissam, and Dr. Nicholas 
Romayne. In 1769 a pest-house was established for 
the reception of diseased emigrants, and the organiza- 
tion of a medical society in 1788, placed John Bard at 
its head as president. Through the efficient instru- 
mentality of Drs. Peter Middleton, John Jones, and 
Samuel Bard, we find the New York Hospital took its 
rise and was chartered in 1771. In 1790 we find the 
first of our city dispensaries in operation ; five years 
after commenced the rebuilding of the great city alms- 
house on the site of the (^Id edifice in the Park, and 
which in 1812 was converted to other purposes, literary 
and historical, and destroyed by fire some two or three 
years ago. From historical data, I am authorized to 
state, that these several institutions yielded curative 
and savinc: benefits to multitudes of the indioent and 
the afilicted, under the direction of a wise supervision 
and the talents of able clinical direction, medical and 
surgical. The original faculty of physic organized by 
King's (subsequently Columbia) College, were among 
the prominent teachers and |)rescribers, and Bard,Clossy, 
Bayley, Hosack, Mitchill, Post, Crosby, and Nicholls, 
are to be enumerated in the number. 



189 

In 1811 was projected the ample Belleviie Hospital 
and Almshouse, which was rendered fit for the reception 
of its inmates in 1810, Dr. McCready tells ns, from offi- 
cial records, at a cost of nearly half a million of dollars. 
The medical government of this great establishment 
was placed under a visiting or consulting physician, 
while the immediate attendance was confided to one 
or two physicians who resided in the institution. A 
malignant typhus or hospital fever breaking out, which 
made great havoc both with the patients and the doc- 
tors themselves, led to the appointment of a special 
committee of inquiry into errors and abuses, when Dr. 
Joseph M. Smith and Dr. Isaac Wood assumed the 
medical management. The occasion gave origin to 
the Fever Hospital at the i-ecommendation of Dr. 
David Hosack, to which charity the febrile cases were 
transferred, when within a month the pestilence was 
happily at an end. Dr. Isaac Wood now received the 
appointment of resident physician of the Bellevue 
Hospital, and held the office seven years, with signal 
benefit to the public interests and to humanity, when 
his resignation led to the acceptance of the trust by 
Dr. B. Ogden. The tortuous policy of politics, how- 
ever, now led to party appointments, and the evils 
incident to such policy flowed in with increased force ; 
inexperience betrayed her incompetency, and the 
soundest whiggism and most radical democracy often 
proved equally ignorant of the principles of hygiene 
and curative measures. Typhus again resumed lier 
work, and change became imperative. In the midst of 
revolutionary struggles, in order to rectify this deplor- 
able condition the government of this great institution 
was at length placed under the medical discipline of 



100 

Dr. David M. ' Reese, as physician in chief. Justice 
demands that it be recorded, that this appointment led 
to a great reformation. Dr. Reese, during his term of 
office, stood forward the champion of innovation and 
improvement, and displayed in a noble cause a per- 
severance and ability which have proved of lasting 
benefit. 

In 1849 the office of Resident Physician was abol- 
ished by the Board of Governors of the Almshouse, to 
whom the control of the establishment had passed, 
and the administration of the medical department of 
the Bellevue given over entirely to a Medical Board. 
Enlargements of this vast charity have from time to 
time been made commensurate to the wants of an in- 
creasing population, and advantageous improvements 
have been adopted, characteristic of the enlarged policy 
of our municipal authorities ; and, were I to dwell 
longer on the subject, I might adopt with benefit the 
eulogistic language which Dr. McCready employs 
when speaking of the present renovated state of the 
edifice, its ample dimensions, the convenient disposi- 
tion of its large and airy wards, supplied with every 
essential want for the afflicted, and its peculiarly sana- 
tive location on the l>orders of the East River. 

The Bellevue Hospital may well be pronounced a 
noble rival to the finest and best conducted charities 
in the world. As a school of practical medicine and 
surgery, its claims will be conceded by all ; and from 
my official connection with its affiiirs, for some years, 
I can testify to the disinterested zeal and benevolence 
and devotion which dignify its medical and surgical 
Board, and clinical instructors. It is due to individual 
zeal and professional ardor to add that the great field 



191 

of medical and surgical practice whicli the Bellevue 
Hospital j^resents, has recently led to the formation of 
a museum of pathological anatomy, by Dr. J. R. Yv ood, 
one of the clinical instructors. 

But where am I to stop when I have entered upon 
a consideration of the humane and benevolent institu- 
tions of this metropolis ? the briefest notice of those 
alone which have been created, since the incorporation 
of the Historical Society, by legislative authority and 
individual liberality, would fill a volume. Some othei- 
occasions may be appropriated to so instructive an 
undertaking. Among her thousand claims to com- 
mendation, I consider the charities of this metropoli- 
tan city the noblest trophy she bears; and as I am 
much in the habit of connectino: with her various 
institutions the names and promoters of those beneli- 
cent foundations, I cannot separate the blessings which 
have been imparted to suffering mortals during the 
long career of the New York Hos23ital, the wisdom 
imparted by clinical instruction to the hosts of stu- 
dents who have resorted thither for some two or three 
generations, and the triumphs of skill which the pro- 
fessional literature of the country records, achieved by 
Bayle}', Post, Hosack, Kissam, Seaman, Stringham, 
and Mott. Memoirs of these eminent professors of 
the art of healing have long been before the public. 
Yet I could have wished that some surgical friend had 
delineated, with more satisfaction than has yet been 
done, the great career, as an operative surgeon, of 
Richard S. Kissam. For thirty years he was one of 
the surgical faculty of the New York Hospital, a 
station he was solicited to accept, and displayed in liis 
art resources of practical tact and original genius. 



192 

He was emulous of surgical glory, and lie obtained it. 
Our city bad the honor of bis birtb ; be was one of 
the sons of the renowned lawyer, Benjamin Kissani, 
wbo bad been tbe legal instructor of Jobn Jay. Young 
Kissam received a classical education under Cutting, 
of Long Island, and was graduated M. D. at Edin- 
burgh in 1787. Upon receiving tbe doctorate be trav- 
elled over the continent, and made a visit to Zimmer- 
man, who presented him with a copy of his work on 
Solitude. Horace and Zimmerman were tbe two 
authors Kissam most deliofbted in. His long- and 
triumphant career leaves no possibility of doubt as to 
the solidity of his pi-etensions. Society bad little 
attractions for him; he was absorbed in bis profession. 
During more than twenty years he was the most 
popular operator tbe city could boast, and be was 
often called the man of the people. His professional 
liberality to the afflicted poor was a striking charac- 
teristic of bis whole life ; while from the affluent he 
demanded a becoming return for bis skill. He died 
in November, 1822, aged fifty-nine years. 

There are due, by the inhabitants of this metropo- 
lis, many obligations to the administration of the 
New York Hospital, for their early and incessant 
efforts to mitigate tbe horrors, and alleviate the suffer- 
ings of tbe insane. Tbe loudest calls of humanity are 
often awakened in cases of afflicted intellect, and the 
solicitude which has from time to time invoked new 
desires for their relief, has by this institution been 
crowned with results cheering to the j^bilantbropist. 
In 1 808 tbe governors of tbe hospital erected an edi- 
fice for the exclusive use of the insane, on grounds 
adjacent to tbe south wing of their city hospital, and 



193 

Dr. Archibald Bruce was elected as physician. In 
1820 the large and commodious institution at Bloom- 
ingdale, under their government, was opened for that 
special class of patients.'^ This beautiful site, with its 
ample buildings, is eminently fitted for the benevolent 
design originally projected, and De Witt Clinton se- 
cured its perpetuity by legislative grants. Among the 
medical prescribers to this magnificent institution have 
been Hosack, Neilson, Bayley, Ogden, MacDonald, 
and Pliny Earle. To this last-named physician, the 
public are obligated for valuable statistics and reports 
on mental alienation. When justice is done in an his- 
torical account of the Bloomingdale Asylum, the ser- 
vices of that prominent citizen, in acts of benevolence, 
the late Thomas Eddy, will be more entirely appreci- 
ated. He seized the first opportunity to enter into a 
correspondence with Samuel Tuke, of York, in Eng- 
land, learning of the success which, under moral man- 
agement, had followed the treatment of the insane ; 
and in Knapp's Life of Eddy are to be found many 
incidents connected with the literary and professional 
intercourse of these two worthy disciples of Primitive 
Barclay. When abroad in Europe I found that the 
condition of lunatic asylums, and the treatment of those 
suffering the tortures of a diseased mind, were subjects 
attracting great notice. The Report of the Inquiry 
instituted by Parliament was then just published, and 
vast abuses exposed, and I was prompted by more 
than a vacant curiosity to add personal facts to my 
reading, by the inspection of many institutions devoted 
to insanity, and the treatment adopted by them. I 

* Hosack's Life of Clintou. 



194 

found more barbarity and indifference in the medical 
discipline of these lamentable subjects of insanity in 
the establishments in Holland, than elsewhere. At 
the Bicetre, in Paris, I was delighted with the fatherly 
care and medical tact of Pinel, now the acknowledged 
discoverer of the great benefits of moral management, 
but who, a short time before, was annoyed by the 
vituperations of the British press. At the retreat of 
Samuel Tuke, the benevolent and philosophic Quaker, 
I found all verified that his novel and imj^ressive work 
related, and I was emboldened to write to Eddy, on 
the success of this important innovation on old preju- 
dices which this institution presented. The result was 
that, fortified by the most gratifying testimony, the 
writings of Tuke and the publications of the day, with 
verbal details by intelligent travellers whom Eddy 
consulted, the moral management found the strongest 
advocates among the members of the Hospital Board, 
and demonstrative proof has multiplied itself again 
and again, that while the doctors' art is often indis- 
pensable to restore to right reason, yet that, in an im- 
posing variety of cases, disturbed intellects are ren- 
dered again healthy, not so much by the prescription 
of drugs, as by humane treatment, and that system of 
management which the Retreat so advantageously 
enforced. Thomas Eddy will ever be remembered as 
the activ^e agent in this great measure in the New 
World. Pathology has not as yet yielded us any great 
light on the grave causes of mental aberration, and 
the knife of the dissector has often failed to trace 
altered structure in the most perverted cases of lunacy. 
Hence we estimate at a still higher price the value of 
discipline, the exercise of the kindlier affections, and 



195 

moral culture. When the adoption of these curative 
measures shall have become more general, we shall no 
longer hear of the flagellation of an infirm monarch, 
or of ponderous manacles and eternal night as arti- 
cles of the materia medica. Our countryman Rush 
has enlarged our storehouse of facts on the diseases of 
the mind ; and the treatise of Dr. Ray, of Rhode 
Island, has strengthened our philosophy on the analysis 
of intricate cases in juridical science. 

With the bare mention of that newly-created chan- 
ty, St. Luke's Hospital, now about to open its portals 
for the accommodation of the afflicted — an institution 
the offspring of Christian benevolence, aided l)y the 
outjDouring liberality of our opulent citizens — with the 
further prospects we have before us of a Woman's 
Hospital, for the special relief of infirmities over which 
recent science has triumphed in the hands of Dr. Sims, 
and the cherished hopes derived from the success of 
our enlightened countryman. Dr. Howe, of Boston, 
that in due season even the forlorn idiot may be res- 
cued, I reluctantly dismiss all further notice of the 
many corporations of like benevolence which flourish 
in this metropolis. But it is the less necessary on this 
occasion to notice the progress of humanity in this 
rapidly increasing city since the commencement of the 
Historical Society's labors ; a partial estimate may be 
formed of the work that is actually done, and is doing 
among us, from the statement lately furnished by that 
accurate observer, Dr. Griscom.'^' 

* According to a tableau which I have compiled, says Dr. Griscom, 
chiefly from their own published statements, there are in this city devoted 
to the care of the sick poor, four general hospitals, five dispensaries, two 
eye and ear infirmaries, one lying-in asylum, three special hospitals (on 



196 

With facts of this import before us, who will gain- 
say the claims of the divine art of healing to that 
public recognition which is yielded to the highest and 
most solemn of the professional labors of life ? who 
that properly contemplates the duties, the objects, and 
the desires of the real physician, can prove reluctant 
in awarding to his responsible calling merits not sur- 
passed by those of any other human avocation ? Let 
the moralist and the philosopher give attention to the 
progress medical science has made during a period not 
longer than that of an ordinary human life ; investi- 
gate the achievements which have marked the past 

Blackwell's and Eandall's Islands), several orphan asylums and prison-lios- 
pitals, besides other unenunierated charitable and penal establisliment8, 
where medical and surgical aid is rendered. In the institutions thus enume- 
rated, there were treated in 1853, 151,449 cases of disease, of every variety. 
Devoted actively to the service of these patients, we find recorded the 
names of 169 medical men. Estimating the professional service rendered 
these patients at what is denominated, in the last report of one of these in- 
stitutions in true mercantile phrase, the "lowest market value" (which of 
necessity varies in the several institutions, in consequence of the varied 
character of the cases) we have an aggregate of $745,458. An analysis of 
the circumstances connected with these services, shows that of these 169 
medical men, 36 are merely boarded and lodged at the expense of the 
institutions, or receive pay equivalent thereto, amounting in all to 
$0,552 ; 30 of them receive salaries varying from $200 to $1,500, in the 
aggregate, $20,560 ; while the remaining 103, receive no compensation 
Avhatever. In addition to this, if we estimate the amount of private gra- 
tuitous advice which every medical man renders, in the emergencies of the 
sick poor, at the moderate rate ot $100 per annum, the number of prac- 
titioners in this city being about 900, we have a total sum of $90,000 to 
add to that before given, making a total of services rendered by the medi- 
cal profession, in the year 1853, to the sick poor, in the City of New York, 
of $835,458, of which there is returned $27,112. In whatever light it may 
be viewed, the rendition of these services is simply the contribution of the 
medical profession to the support of public charity, to the full amount 
mentioned ; it is so much saved to the taxpa^'ers. — Anniversary Discourse 
"before the New Yorh Academy of Medicine^ Nov. 22cZ, 1854, hy John H. 
Gbiscom, M. D. 



197 

thirty years ; learn in how many ways pestilence has 
been disarmed of half of her weapons ; individual dis- 
orders lessened in malignity or exterminated ; hygiene 
fortified with new capabilities ; the principles of sanitary 
laws comprehended and applied ; individual life made 
happier and prolonged ; the health of mighty popula- 
tions improved, and the great numerical increase in 
longevity. London is at the present day to be enume- 
rated as first of the healthiest cities in the world ; and 
the statistics which have been given to the public by 
our countryman, Dr. Campbell F. Stewart,* show us 
the grounds upon which life annuities may be granted 
to the greater advantage of the insurer, a ratio of im- 
provement which Price, Morgan, and Finlaison, never 
anticipated. 

Nearly all this has been accomplished by the 
mental activity, the science, and the philanthropy of the 
medical faculty. Had now this opulent city a proper 
sanitary commission duly organized, with our almost 
unequalled topographical advantages, we might boast 
of a population whose mortality might safely be esti- 
mated at twenty-five or thirty per cent, less than is 
recorded of its present inhabitants. Sad, sad indeed, is 
the reflection, that responsible trusts are not always con- 
fided to competent officials. The trammels of party 
too often defeat the best designs, and incompetency 
usurps the seat of knowledge. How long we are to be 
doomed to witness this monstrous incongruity and 
suffer its penalties, time alone must show. 

In taking a retrospective view of the progress of 
medical science during the past fifty or sixty years in 

* Discourse before the New York Academy of Medicine. 



198 

New York, the instructors and practitioners of the 
healing art have had many reasons for rejoicing. Our 
medical colleges have enhanced in power, and the 
means of enlightenment.'^ The collateral branches of 
science are unfolded by more ample apparatus, and by 
experiments such as in former days were wholly be- 
yond our reach. Our medical annals are enriched with 
recorded evidences of great chirurgical skill, of novel 
and successful proofs, of wise discrimination, and of 
genius happily demonstrated ; in the practical displays 
of clinical sciences, the wi'itings of our authors have 
furnished lessons of instruction to the masters of the 
art abroad. Our medical and scientific literature is 
sought after with becoming deference V)y remote pro- 
fessors in foreign schools, and has the honor of transla- 
tion for continental Europe. All this for a long season 
has been gratifying to individual pride and flattering 
to our character as a I'ising people. Yet it is not to be 
concealed that imposture still holds its influence among 
us, and that as a learned body, the medical profession 
is still disfigured by pretenders to its secrets ; that 
jarring elements still disturb its harmony, and that the 
public, scarcely to be presumed to be the best judges 
of the recondite qualifications of the disciples of heal- 
ing, are still molested by the artifices of the designing 
and the efl:rontery of the ignorant. 

More than forty years ago I gave utterance to my 
opinion on the condition of the medical art in New 

* Now three in number: — The College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
founded in 1807, its present head, Dr. Cock ; the University of the City of 
New York, founded in 1840, present head. Dr. Draper; and the New 
York Medical College, founded in 1848, present head, Dr. Greene. 



199 

York * The reasons for denunciation of many occur- 
rences then prevalent, were stronger than at the pres- 
ent day. The condition of affairs is ameliorated. 
Numerous agencies have been in operation since that 
period, which have corrected many abuses detrimental 
to public safety. Then we could not speak of a school of 
Pharmacy. The Indian doctors and the effete remnant 
of licentiates by a justice's court, thanks to a superin- 
tending providence, now rest from their labors. Col- 
legiate knowledge is more widely diffused, and he is an 
adventurous individual who now presumes to approach 
the bed-side without the clinical knowledge of hospi- 
tals. It may be written as an axiom, You might as well 
create a practical navigator by residence in a sylvan 
retreat, as furnish a physician without hospital experi- 
ence. 

* " That almost every district of our country abounds witli individu- 
als who set up to exercise the duties of ])ractitioners of medicine need 
scarcely be stated ; liow great is the number of them, who from want of 
proper education and from habits of indolence, are totally ignorant of the 
first principles of their profession, and who degrade the noblest of studies 
into the meanest of arts, cannot have escaped the attention of any who at 
all regard the interests of society. That characters of this description do 
abound, not in this or that particular city or district, but are to be met 
with in almost every part of the country, is a fact which no one, we pre- 
sume, will have the hardihood to deny. Though they ditier from beasts 
of prey, inasmuch as these are most generally found in the uninhabited 
wilds of the country, while those are most abundantly congregated in our 
largest and mo3t populous cities, yet they wage war with equal success as 
it regards the destruction of their objects. So frequently, indeed, do they 
present themselves to our view as almost to have become domesticated 
and familiar with us, and to have lost that novelty which monsters in 
general possess. The inroads and depredations which they commit, bid 
defiance to all calculation ; whether they come in the natural shape of 
nostrum-mongers and vendors of infallible cures, or whether they assume 
a peculiar grimace and atfected sapience, that touch us equally pestilential." 
— American Med. and Philosoph. Register^ vol. iii. 



200 

Nevertheless, it would be criminal to ignore the 
fact that the noble art still struggles witli many diffi- 
culties, and it is a s-larino^ truth that not the least of 
them has arisen in the vicissitudes of legislation. The 
few wholesome laws, which a century had brought 
foi'th, for the advancement of medicine and the protec- 
tion of its rights, were by state authority, some ten or 
twelve years since, abrogated, and strange to add, the 
bill which accomplished that nefarious measure was in- 
troduced into the chamber of the Senate by a partisan 
representative from this city. The distinguished pres- 
ident of our Historical Society, Lieut. Gov. Bradish, 
was then a member of the Senate. It is scarcely ne- 
cessary to add that his cultivated mind recoiled at the 
measure, and that his strenuous efforts were exerted to 
defeat the iniquitous law. There was no monopoly 
existing to absorb the rights of others that could justify 
such enactment. The colleges did no more than con- 
fer their usual honors, to distinguish and reward merit ; 
they fostered rising talent, and held communion with 
mature experience, with no other aim than to exalt ex- 
cellence ; their very incorporation forbade their counte- 
nance of corrupt practices, and with the principles ever 
inherent in disciplined minds, they disdained to mar 
the rank of professional worth. I have often had my 
credulity taxed to believe that in these enlightened 
days such hardihood could have been exhibited by the 
makers of our laws, and that too at the very seat of 
wisdom, where our special guardians of literature and 
science, the Hon. the Regents of the University, an- 
nually convene, and where, moreover, that long created 
association, the State Medical Society, with its many 



201 

able meraT)ers, are wont to exercise tlieir chartered 
privileges for medical improvement. 

It is almost superfluous to remark that the memo- 
rable act to which I have alluded was received by the 
profession with emotions of sorrow and indignation. It 
was now seen that the noble art was again left unpro- 
tected by the representatives of the people, and conse- 
quently by the people themselves. It had thus found 
itself in the beginning of the city, but a revolving 
century had presented some relief; its prospects had 
brightened, and the rights and immunities of the reg- 
ular physician had been recognized, and approved laws 
had secured him against the tricks of the harlequin 
and the wiles of the over- reaching. The disciplined 
medical man is not, however, the easiest to be disheart- 
ened. His study is human nature, and he compre- 
hends its phases. 

Intus et in cute novi. 

He is familiar with hindrances, and in the exercise of 
his art has often prescribed for individual mental delu- 
sion, and can compiehend the sources of popular error. 
What is sporadic he knows may become epidemic. 

The medical faculty, accordingly, now took a new 
view of the interests of their profession and the safety 
of the people. Their determination was fixed that no 
degeneracy in that science to wdiich their lives were 
devoted, should follow as a consequence of pernicious 
legislation. Notwithstanding all restrictions of qualifi- 
cations for the exercise of the art might be considered 
as removed, yet the city was not to be dismayed by ' 
absurd enactments, nor the profession alarmed because 
the door was opened so wide that all wno chose might 
14 



202 

enter into practice, a broader privilege than is enjoyed, 
I believe, by any of the members of the mechanical 
fraternity. Other circumstances not now necessary to 
be enumerated strengthened their designs, and favored 
their deliberations, and there was no reason for delay. 
The auspicious hour had at length arrived, and the for- 
mation of an Academy of Medicine in this city was 
secured. This timely, this judicious, this important, 
this necessary movement, owed its creation to the wants 
and honor of the profession, and the perpetuity of its 
rights. Association, it w\as reasoned, would protect its 
claims as the noblest of pursuits, and its divine origin 
could not be abrogated by the statute book The year 
1846 gave birth to the Academy; its incorporation 
was granted in 1852. I cannot now write the history 
of this successful institution during its first decennial. 
Our Nestors in Hippocratic science, moved by weighty 
reasons in behalf of public health and individual hap- 
piness, laid its foundation, and in this goodly work we 
find recorded the names of Stevens, Mott, Smith, Stew- 
art, "Wood, Reese,Kissam, Detmold, and Stearns. 

The Academy has been generously fostered by an 
imposing number of the erudite and accomplished of 
the medical and surgical profession, and order and har- 
mony have characterized all its proceedings. The sub- 
ject-matter of discussion at its meetings, and the com- 
munications of its members, have had special interest, 
and have demonstrated that the faculty of close obser- 
vation and acute reasoning is still among the diagnostic 
marks of the cultivated practical physician. Its printed 
transactions speak in louder accents of the excellence 
of its labors than my feeble pen can here express. 
With an inflexible intent to keep a watchful eye over 



203 

the interests of professional learning and practical 
skill, to hold in reverential regai'd the obligations of 
sound medical ethics, to guard against the delusions 
and the medical heresies of the day, and at all times 
to cherish the rising merits of the junior associates in 
the art of healing, no apprehension need be felt that 
the Academy will prove otherwise than a rich boon to 
medical philosophy, and a blessing to this great, pros- 
perous, and vastly increasing metropolis. 

Like the Historical Society, the Academy of Medi- 
cine selected at its organization a venerable head as its 
first President, John Stearns. He had fulness of years, 
weight of character, and corresponding experience, and 
could look back with satisfaction on an extensive career 
of professional service. He was a native of Massachu- 
setts, and l)orn in 1770. He was graduated in the arts 
at Yale Colles-e in 1786. He attended the lectures of 
Hush, Shippen, Kuhn, and others of Philadelphia, but 
did not receive the doctorate until 1812, when the Re- 
gents of the University of New York conferred on him 
the honorary degree of M. D. He commenced the 
practical exercise of his profession at Waterford, after- 
wards at Albany and at Saratoga, and linally settled 
in the city of New York, where he maintained the 
reputation of an honorable, devoted, and benevolent 
physician, until the close of his long life, in March, 
1848. His death, which was greatly lamented, was 
occasioned by a dissection wound, arising from his zeal to 
arrive, by a post-mortem examination, to more certain 
pathological conclusions, in a case of singular interest. 
He met this unexpected disaster w^ith exemplary for- 
bearance, and experienced the consolation of a Chris- 
tian's hope in his final departure. The Academy paid 



2U4 

appropriate funeral lionoi's to bis memory, and tlie Kev. 
iJr. Tyiig, of St. Geoi-ge's Chapel, of which Dr. Stearns 
had long been a member, delivered an apjjropriate dis- 
eoui'se on the life and character of the " Good Phy- 
sician." 

Great as was the devotion pnid by Dr. Steai-ns to 
practical medicine, he was in earlier life enlisted in ]^o- 
litical afltairs; and we find him in the Senate of the 
State of New York in 1812, and a member of the 
Council of Aj)pointment. Shortly after the organiza- 
tion of the State Medical Society, he deliveied the an- 
nual addi'ess, as President. He was for many years a 
Trustee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. His 
name is recorded as one of the foundei's of the Ameii- 
can Tract Society, and he took a deep interest in the 
welfare of the Bible Society, and the Institution for the 
benefit of the Deaf and Dumb. The annals of char- 
ity include his name in other institutions of a benevo- 
lent design. His philanthropic spirit cannot be ques- 
tioned. His writings on the profession, and on subjects 
of a kindred nature, are scattered tlirough the period- 
icals of the times. He is indissolubly associated with 
an heroic article of the materia medica, the virtues of 
which his clinical sagacity first brought to notice. 
His biief paper on Catale])sy atti'acted the attention 
of the learned Dr. Good. This short sketch must suf- 
fice to show that the Academy were judicious in tht-ir 
choice of their first ofiicei', and both his inaugural ad- 
dress and the manner in which he fulfilled his trust, 
soon dismissed all doubt as to the wisdom of their suf- 
frage. This venerable man gave dignity to the meet- 
ings ; his courteousness secured deference and main- 
tained authority ; his knowledge and his impartiality 



205 

added fairness to debate, and increased the gratification 
of intellectual association. 

The office of President is filled by annual elections. 
The present head of the Academy is Valentine Mott, 
whose zeal and assiduity in behalf of the great inter- 
ests of medical and surgical science, half a century's 
labors testify. The lustre of his great name seems to 
have still further swelled the number of friends to the 
Academy, and excited additional activity among them 
to promote the expressed designs of its incorporation. 

When I subjected to manipulation the neglected 
philosopher, old Christopher Colles, the more advan- 
tageously to present him to the public view, I partially 
brouo-ht forward some occurrences which marked the 
literary condition of our metropolis. I design at pre- 
sent to enter a little more minutely into some circum- 
stances associated with the advancement of knowledge 
in this city, particularly as connected with the time 
somewhat anterior to the establishment of the New 
Yoi'k Historical Society, and then to notice a few pro- 
minent events of more recent date, which seem calcu- 
lated to give confidence to the friends of intellectual 
rank, tliat the march of mind is a certain fiict, and that 
we may look on with admiration at the achievements 
that have been already wrought, rather than cherish 
any despondency for the future. The trifling incidents 
with which I commence these literary memorials possess 
an intrinsic interest, inasmuch as they are decisive of 
the humble state and embarrassments in whicb instruc- 
tion and knowledge generally were involved, and of 
the feeble powers which the Press, only two or three 
generations ago, sustained in this country. They are a 
suitable prelude to the great drama now enacting. 



206 

Sonthey lias said that an Americanos first plaything is 
the rattlesnake's tail ; and as he grows up he lays traps 
for opossums and shoots squii'rels for his breakfast. 
This exaggeration may possibly have had a shadow of 
truth in it at the time when tlie pilgrim fathers estab- 
lished their first printing press, or when Bradford first 
pnl)iished our laws, or even when the flying coach tra- 
velled once a week between New Yoik and Phila- 
delphia. An impartial examination of facts will gen- 
erally lead to the conviction that elementary education 
for the most part accompanies the progress of popu- 
lation, and that the requirements of information are 
propoitionably furnished. From her very commence- 
ment, it has seemed to me that New York has been 
characterized more by her scientific displays than by 
her literary products. The distinction which has been 
awarded her eminent men who have labored in the 
several liberal professions of law, physic, and divinity, 
would appear to justify the obsei-vation. Be this as it 
may, we have no difficulty in accounting for the absence 
of learning in our earlier days, when we contemplate 
the condition of the people at different epochs in their 
country's history, and weigh the force of circumstances; 
as for example, that in some instances where the Decla- 
ration of Independence being read at the head of mili- 
tary detachments, and then ordered to be printed for 
wider distribution, types could not be found to execute 
the work. 

At the date at which I would commence these re- 
miniscences, the old Daily Advertiser, and McLean's 
New York Gazette, were the leadinsr oracles. The form- 
er, it is curious to observe, was printed with the press 
and types which had been used by Franklin in Phila- 



207 

delphia, and which, I am told, Poor Richard disposed 
of advantageously to Francis Cliilds, of New York. 
For mercantile purposes these papers did well, and had 
a corresponding circulation ; they betokened in part 
the state of mental culture among the masses. If, 
however, we except the discussions on the American 
Constitution by the writers of the Federalist, and some 
few other subjects of national importance, by Kufus 
King, Noah Webster, Fisher Ames, and a few others, 
we may affirm that a single issue of some of our most 
popular papers of the present day, is enriched with 
more intellectual material than a year's file of these 
old journals. In 1793 was projected the Minerva, 
which under the control of its editor, Noah Webster, at 
once elevated the character of this species of periodical 
literature. Webster labored at this service some seven 
years, when the title of the paper was changed to that 
of the Commercial Advertiser, which has continued its 
diurnal course up to the present time, under the super- 
vision of F. H. Hall, and has attained a longevity greater 
than that of any other journal ever originated in this 
city. The NewYork Magazine, projected by the Swords, 
was the only monthly periodical that received a becom- 
ing patronage, which sustained it for some eight or nine 
years, when it was succeeded by the American Maga- 
zine and the New York Review, whose writers were 
not uufrequently called the Mohawk reviewers, from 
their hostility to the rising Jacobinism of the times. 
The ])eriod of the existence of these periodicals was 
from 1790 to 1801. The first specified was the chosen 
vehicle for a series of essays of a literary circle, 
called the Drone Club. The association included 
many accomplished writers, Bleecker, Mitchill, Kent, 



208 

Miller, Wells, cfec. Th) last survivor of the Drones 
was tbe late Chief Justice Samuel Joues, an early 
memher of the Historical Society and a prodigy in 
black-letter learning. In 1797 the Medical Repository 
was commenced by Drs. MitchiH, Miller and Smith, 
the first journal of a scientific character the countiy 
could boast. The business of instruction in our pre- 
pai-atoiy schools was, with few exceptions, under the 
control of inadequate principals ; in many instances the 
commonest business of life was abandoned on the de- 
mand for a teacher, and the responsible duties of an 
intellectual guide, undertaken by individuals whose 
chief recommendation was their dexterity with the awl 
and the hammer. Some qualified for the great trust, 
were, ho we vei-, found. Edward Riggs, long the master 
of a grammar school in this city, published his Intro- 
duction to the Latin Tongue in 1784, the first indige- 
nous work of that kind among us ; and he was followed 
by James Hardy, the compiler of several compends for 
instruction in the classics, in 1793-4. The remem- 
brance of him is still vivid. He was an Aberdeen 
scholar; his early life was devoted to the seas; he be- 
came an inmate of the family of Dr. Beattie, who gave 
him recommendations as well qualified for a professor- 
ship of classical literature. At Dr. Beattie's suggestion 
he came out to this city. In his best estate he was an 
approved teacher. After a while he abandoned the 
schoolmaster's office, and finally sought a livelihood as 
a supernumei'ary of the Board of Health. He encoun- 
tered the yellow fever in its most malignant form with 
consummate bravery during its several visitations after 
1795, and compiled those volumes of facts and opinions 
on the pestilence which bear his name. He lived 



209 

through many vicissitudes, aud died of cholera, in 
1832. 

The elementary spelling books of Webster, and the 
geography of Morse, in my urchin days, were making 
their way to public approbation, not however without 
much opposition ; they had a long contest with Dil worth 
and Salmon, and almost a score of years had passed 
before Pike and Root, authorities with the federal cur- 
rency, overcame the schoolmaster's assistant and the 
Irishman Gough, with their sterling standard value of 
pounds, shillings and pence. Enfield's Speaker was 
forced to yield to Bingham's Preceptor, and D wight's 
Columbia superseded Kule Britannia. I cannot dwell 
on the speculations thrown out by the teachers of the 
day on the merits and demerits of these instruments of 
their art, and on the necessity then urged by them, of 
a disenthralled and free nation exercising an independent 
judgment, with the patriotic endeavor to create a new 
litei-ature for a regenerated people. With respect to 
books of practical science the same spirit was manifested, 
till at lensrth we find at the commencement of this cen- 
tury, the New Practical Navigator of Nathaniel Bow- 
ditch, of Boston, securing its triumphs for every sea, 
over the time-honored Practical Navigator of Hamilton 
Moore, of Tower-hill, London. 

This desire for fresh mental aliment under a new 
constitution was by no means limited ; it spread far and 
wide, particularly in New England ; it left, I believe, 
old Euclid unmolested, but it involved equally the 
infant primer and the elaborate treatise. In the co- 
lonial condition of affairs Sternhold and Hopkins had 
sustained many assaults, but their strongholds were 
now invaded by the popular zeal of Barlow and 



210 

Dwiglit. Nor were these innovations confined to sa- 
cred poetry alone. The psahuody which had for almost 
centuries mollified the distresses of the heart, and ele- 
vated the drooping spirits of the devout, surrendered 
its wonted claims to the Columbian Harmonist of 
Read. A tolerable library might be formed of the 
various productions of these operatives in the business 
of popular instruction. Noah Webster had engendered 
this zeal more perhaps than any other individual, and 
by incessant devotion had kept it alive. His Disser- 
tations on the English Language he sent to Franklin, 
and Franklin in return wrote to Webster that his book 
would be useful in turning the thoughts of his country- 
men to correct writing, yet administered to him pro- 
fitable cautions. But literature, like the free soil of the 
country in these days, was infested with many weeds, 
and words ran high on many points of verbal logic. 
Amidst all these commotions some things were deemed 
too sacred on all sides to be molested. Such w^as the 
afi'ecting history of the martyrdom of John Rodgers? 
burnt at Smithfield ; but the nursery rhyme, 

Whales in the sea — God's voice obey, 

by acclamation w^as transformed into another equally 
undeniable truth : 

By Washington — Great deeds were done. 

A truth moreover which came home immediately to 
the feelings of the American bosom, and cleaved per- 
haps nearer the heart. 

While the English language therefore, in the hands 
of the disciplinarians, was struggling for new powers 



211 

and a loftier phraseology, — for few were enumerated in 
those days who believed with Gibbon and Franklin 
that the French tonsfue mis^ht absorb all other 
speech, — the patriotism of the youthful population ran 
no less wild than the literary ravings of the school- 
masters and the would-be philologists ; yet as time has 
proved with like innocence to the detriment of the 
Republic. Wars and rumors of war kept the juveniles 
alive. Social companies of youngsters were formed, 
accoutred with wooden guns and kettle drums, and 
were perpetually seen, with braggart front in harmless 
squads, marching with the air of Capt. Bobadil, chant- 
ing some piece of continental poetry : 

Behold ! the conquering Yankees come 
With sound of fife and beat of drum ; 
Says General Lee to General Elowe, 
What do you think of the Yankees now ? 

But these trifles were looked upon as the flying cloud ; 
the nation had ripe men at its head; government was 
successfully securinsf the measures for commerce and 
finance; the schools were daily stronger with better 
teachers, and the halls of colleges were fuller supplied 
with candidates for elevated instruction. The press 
was more prolific, and something beside the Fool of 
Quality and Evelina, the Shepherd of Salisbury Plain 
and George Barn vv ell, were with the reading public- 
Pope, and Ann Radclifi^, and Monk Lewis, might be 
found on the stalls, with Bonaparte's Campaigns in Italy. 
Franklin's life and essays were in everybody's hands. 
Dobson, of Philadelphia, had heroically undertaken the 
republication of the Encyclopsedia Britannica, and Col- 
lins, of New Jersey, about the same time, had issued his 



212 

Liglily pi'ized quarto Family Bible. Nor were our 
New York pul)lishers lukewarm at the pi-inting of elab- 
orate works of grave import and scholastic value. If, 
however, we except tlie Poems of Freiieau and the re- 
print of Burns, we find little in the region of the muses 
that issued from the press; Clifton, Honey wood. Low, 
and Linn, w^ere our prominent domestic poets. 

The Delia Cruscan muse now, however, invaded us: 
Mi's. Robinson's Poems was a dogeared volume; and 
the song of the melodious Bard, Rogers, "I knew by 
the smoke that so gracefully curled," received a pop- 
ularity surpassing that of perhaps any other verses. 
It found its way in the daily journals, weekly museums 
weekly visitors and ladies' magazines ; it was printed on 
single sheets, placarded at inns and in stage coaches ; 
it travelled to the races as the inner lining of hats ; it 
occupied the cabins of the wood boats, and was found 
surroundino: the trunk of the orchard tree ; it was amonsf 
the earliest of our music printing, and old Dr. Ander- 
son, now some eighty years of age, our first engraver 
on w^ood, still alive and still busy, gave it illustrations; 
it was seen among the contents of the young misses' 
reticule, and was read in secret at the doors of churches, 
while the youthful maiden was tarrying for a partner 
to accompany her within the house of worship. My 
defective memory does not permit me to state positively 
that Blauchard, in his aeronautic expeditions, wafted it 
to the skies In short, it was everywhere. But the 
prospects of a French war and Hail Columbia ere long 
limited the duration of this electric poem ; and as if to 
facilitate this object, here and there appeai'ed a sylvan 
rhymist who entwined a chaplet of the Rosa Matilda 
order. What had been considered rare, now lost its 



'J13 

freshness, and spurious articles had currency in the 
maiket without detection by the multitude. The pre- 
tensions of the Delia Cruscan finery came at last to a 
somewhat sudden and unexpected end in the humorous 
effusion of Barrett : 

" If all the geese in Lincoln fens 
Prodnced spontfiiieous well-made pens; 
If Red Sea, Hlack St-a, Wliite Sea rati 
One tide of ink to Ispahan ; 
Had I the stenognipliic power 
To write ten liliraries in an hour, 
'T were all in vain to paint the grace 
Of half a freckle ou thy face." 

One or two additional circumstances may be stated 
to strengthen what has already been said, rather than 
ci'eate doubt as to the accuracy of our narrative. 
Campbell and Bloomiield appeared as authors in i^on- 
don with little interval between them. The Pleasures 
of Hope and the Farmer's Boy were here repiinted 
neaily simultaneously ; the former had been subjected 
to the revision of Dr. Anderson, the editor of the British 
Poets ; the latter had undergone the incul)ation of Capel 
Lofft. Thus fortified, there was little hesitation as to 
the safety of the undertaking. Such was the impor- 
tance attached to these works, that the rival publishers 
])lazened forth their labors, so that every corner of the 
city was enlivened by lai'ge placards announcing the im- 
portant fact. It is almost supeiflnous to add, that with 
the literary taste which had been chei'ished, the Far- 
mer's Boy outran in popularity the Pleasures of Hope. 
A» the case now stands, Campbell makes one of every 
dozen volumes we meet with, while it might be diflicult 
to find a copy of Bloomfield. 



214 

In 1804 Scott enriclied tlie poetic world with liis 
Lay of the Last Minstrel. Soon after its appearance a 
presentation copy of the work in luxurious quarto was 
received by a lady, then a resident of this city, a natire 
of Scotland, and who had been most intimate with the 
author when school companions in the same institution. 
It was seen that the Minstrel was a classic, and the vo- 
lume circulated widely among friends. It shortly after 
fell into the hands of a publishing house, and the great 
question now to be decided was, whether it could bear 
an American reprint, keeping in view the ])nmary ob- 
ject of the bookseller, that the wheel of fortune must 
turn in the right way. A literary coterie was selected 
who might determine the chances of adventure. Among 
other dissuasive arguments, the Lay was pronounced too 
local in its nature, and its interest obsolete ; its measure 
was considered too varied and irregular, and it had not 
the harmony of tuneful Pope. It was rejected by the 
critical tribunal. Longworth, however, brought suffi- 
cient resolution to bear, and printed in his Belles-Let- 
tres Repository of 1805, the universally known intro- 
duction to the first canto. Such was the cool and cal- 
culating reception of Scott with us. One might almost 
think from the opening lines of the poem, that the poet 
had, with prophetic vision, foreseen himself in the New 
AVorld : 

" The way was long, tlie night was cold, 
The Minstrel was infirm and old." 

These were probably the first lines of Walter Scott's 
writings that ever issued from an American press. The 
memorable quarto is still preserved with many associa- 
tions by the venerable lady to whom the illustrious 
author presented it, Mrs. Divie Bethune, the founder of 



215 

our lufimt schools. Who can now tell the hundreds of 
thousands of volumes of this noble writer which the 
press of this country has brought forth ? 

We are not to be abashed at the recital of these 
occurrences concerning the early condition of the press. 
They were associated, and naturally grew out of the 
spirit of the times and the condition of the Republic. 
Scott was a new name among authors, and elegant let- 
ters are not among the first wants of a people. Yet it 
will be conceded that at that very period a broad foun- 
dation was already being laid, on which at no remote 
day literature, as well as science, would command its 
disciples. The trepidation at the hazard of printing 
a few leaves of poetry experienced by some, is to be 
judged merely as an individual infirmity, inasmuch as 
we find that even then typography was prolific of works 
of voluminous extent, and many of its products at that 
day constitute a sound portion of existing libraries. 
Longworth himself was a man of enterprise, but he had 
bought experience by his ornamental edition of Hayley's 
Triumphs of Temper, and he was moreover sustaining 
his Shakspeare Gallery at no small sacrifice ; while we 
find that Evert Duyckinck, Isaac Collins, George F. 
Hopkins, Samuel Campbell, and T. and J. Swords, were 
the leading men to whom we may turn for evidence 
that the press was not idle, and for illustration of the 
rising capabilities of the book-publishers' craft. An 
author was a scarce article in those days, about the be- 
ginning of the nineteenth century ; the returns for lite- 
rary labor must have been small. Noah Webster was 
unquestionably the most successful of the tribe, and in 
his wake followed the geographer Morse. The city 
library, and the circulating library of Caritat, consti- 



216 

tuted pi'etty much all the establishments of that order 
we possessed. Piiitard was then at New Orleans, and 
years elapsed before he and the excellent William Wood 
began to think of the Apprentices' Library, and to sug- 
gest the Mariners' Libi'ary for ships at sea. The Mer- 
cantile Library, now so vast a concern, was not then 
dreamt of, and Philip Hone, with all his ardor as a 
patriotic citizen, had not as yet enlisted in the great 
cause of knowledge, or manifested that attention to 
those important interests which absorbed the years of 
his more advanced life. In a pedestrian excursion 
through our tlien thinly populated streets, one might 
see the ample Dr. Mitchill and his colleague Dr. Miller, 
Dr. Bayley, Dr. Hosack, Dr. 8. Mdlei', Dr. Mason, and 
Dunlap, all writers ; Caines, the deep-read reporter ; 
Cheetham and Coleman, the antagonistic editors ; and 
Kent, afterwards the great Chancellor. In the court 
room we mij:ht behold Hamilton and Burr, Brockholst 
Livingston and Martin Wilkins, Colden and Slosson, 
HoUinan and Pendleton, and young Wells.* 

* To render these imperfect sketches of the times less defective, I had 
designed to notice brietly the New York Bar, with which I was partially 
acquainted, by my repeated visits at the courts ; often as medical witness 
in behalf of the peoi)le in criminal cases involving medical jurisprudence; 
but my resources are not adequate to the great subject, and the under- 
taking is the less necessary after the precious and interesting History of 
the Court of Common Pleas, from the pen of the lion. Charles F. Daly, 
one of tlie Judges, and printed in volume 1st of the Reports of Cases, by 
Counsellor E. Delafield Smith. Some forty-five years ago, my lamented 
friend and associate of Columbia College, Samuel Berrian, brother of the 
venerable Rector of Trinity Church, commenced a series of Sketclies of 
the Members of the Bar, which appeared in Dennie's Portfolio. II is first 
subject was Josiaii Ogdeii Ilolt'inan, witli whom he was a pupil. The great 
men of the legal profession of those days to which I allude, were indeed 
by universal concurrence, enumerated an)ong the master minds of the 
land ; and I have often heard it said, that the voice of the law, from their 



217 

The literary struggles of tliose clays deserve more 
ample notice, but our task may be honestly abridged 
at this time. The curious in a knowledge of literary 
toil, in the progress of letters, and in the details of 
authorshi[), will not fail frequent consultation of the se- 
veral works of the late Dr. Griswold, a faithful pioneer 
of mental acumen in this department of study, and turn 
with renewed delicrbt and increased satisfaction to the 
Biographical Essays of the aesthetic Tuckerman, and 
the pages of the Cyclopaedia of American Literature, by 
the Messrs. Duyckinck. When thoroughly investigated, 
the candid inquirer may wonder that under such diffi- 
culties so much was in reality accomplished. 

So lono- aQ:o as in 1802 I had the pleasure of wit- 
nessing the first social gathering of American publishers 
at the old City Hotel, Broadway, an organization under 
the auspices of the venerable Matthew Carey. About 
thirty years after I was one of a large assembly brought 
together by the Brothers Harper's great entertainment. 
I remember well the literary wares displayed on that 



lips, was the harmony of the world. Legal medicine, I am inclined to 
think, received more liomage in the days of Tlioraas Addis Emmet and 
Hugh Maxwell, the District Attorney, than it had before or has since. 
Emmet was profoundly learned as a physician ; in all cases of death that 
came before him requiring medical testimony, an examination of the brain 
he made a prerequisite. It is not irrelevant to add, that Dr. James S. 
Stringham is to be considered the founder of Medical Jurisprudence in this 
country. He was the first who gave lectures on this science in America, 
and was my predecessor in the chair of Forensic Medicine in the Univer- 
sity of New York. His taste for this knowledge he originally imbibed from 
his able preceptor, Dr. Duncan, of Edinburgh. His reading on the subject 
was extensive, from the elaborate investigations of Paulus Zacchias, down 
to the recent productions of Fodere and Malion. A fuller account of him 
may be found in my Sketch, in Beck's Medical Jurisprudence. He was a 
native of New York, and died in 1817. 

15 



218 

first memorable occasion, and I still see in " my mind's 
eye " the prominent group of American authors who 
participated in the festivities of the latter celebration. 
Again in 1855 a comj)limentary festival of the New 
York Book Publishers' Association to authors and 
booksellers took place at the Crystal Palace. A com- 
parative view of these three periods in literary progress 
would furnish an instructive illustration of the workings 
of the American mind and of the enterprise and capa- 
bilities of the American press. The venerable Matthew 
Carey at the primary meeting held forth, in earnest 
language, persuasives to renewed meetings of a like na- 
ture as the most effective means for the promotion and 
diftusion of knowledge. Isaac Collins, that jewel of a 
man for solid worth and integrity, concurred in senti- 
ment. At the Harper entertainment similar opinions 
proceeded from many minds, and the liveliest responses 
in confirmation were listened to from Chancellor Kent 
and a large number of native Avriters of celebrity. At 
the last celebration of 1855, which was conducted on a 
scale of great variety and elegance, Washington Irving 
and a most imposing association of distinguished authors, 
male and female, graced the occasion : those public spi- 
rited publishers, the Appletons, with Wiley and Putnam, 
rendered the banquet a genial gathering of kindred 
spirits. The intelligent and patriotic Putnam, in an 
appropriate introductory address, stated the fact that 
for twelve years, ending in 1842, there were pub- 
lished 1,115 diff'erent works, of these 623 were original ; 
in the year 1853 there were 733 new works published 
in the United States, of which 276 were reprints of 
English works, 35 were translations of foreign authors, 
and 420 original American works; thus showing an in- 



219 

crease of about 800 per cent, in less than twenty years. 
Mr. Putnam tlius draws the conclusion that literature 
and the book-trade advanced ten times as fast as the 
population. If with these facts we compare the num- 
bers printed of each edition, the growth is still greater : 
editions at the present time varying from 10,000, 
30,000, 75,000, and even 300,000. The Magazine of 
the Messrs. Harper reaches the astounding number at 
each issue of 180,000. On this last memorable occasion 
of the publishers' celebration our distinguished poet, 
Bryant, responded to a sentiment on American litera- 
ture in his happiest manner. I quote a few lines from 
his suggestive address : " The promise of American 
authorship, given by the appearance of Cotton Mather, 
has never been redeemed till now. In him the age saw 
one of its ripest scholars, though formed in the New 
England schools and by New England libraries, in the 
very infancy of the colonies ; a man, as learned as the 
author of the Anatomy of Melancholy, and sometimes 
as quaintly eloquent, sending out huge quartos as the 
fruit of his labors, interspersed with duodecimos, the 
fruit of his recreations ; but his publications exceeded 
the number of the days of the year. After his time, 
in the hundred and fifty years which followed, the pro- 
cession of American authors was a straggling one ; at 
present they are a crowd which fairly choke the way ; 
illustrious historians, able and acute theologians, authors 
of books of travels, instructive or amusing, clever no- 
velists, brilliant essayists, learned and patient lexico- 
graphers. Every bush, I had almost said every butter- 
cup of the fields has its poet ; poets start up like the 
soldiers of Koderick Dim, from behind every rock and 
out of every bank of fern." 



220 

1 must linger a moment longer on this subject. Our 
literary annals, while they abound with occurrences 
most gratifying to the intellectual and moral advance- 
ment of our species, possess yet another claim to esti- 
mation. The making of books has not been an em- 
ployment of selfish and inert gratification ; it has proved 
a prolific source of emolument, no less remarkable than 
the peculiar occasions which have awakened the talents 
necessary for the healthy exercise of the art itself. 
Literature, independently of its own noble nature, has 
superadded to its powers a productive result of sub- 
stantial issue; and while it beautifies and enriches with 
precious benefits the progress of civilization, it has se- 
cured the comforts which spring up from the whole- 
some pursuit of other sources of wealth. This indeed 
is the offspring of but a recent period among us ; but 
the fact is not the less solacing to the pangs of intellec- 
tual labor. The huckstering which once marred the 
transactions between publishers and authors no longer 
occurs ; the starveling writers whom I now and then 
saw, at about the time of the first meeting of our lite- 
rary venders, the booksellers of 1802, have paid the 
debt of nature, 1 dare not add prematurely ; and we 
can now enroll a list of the literary and the scientific 
who have increased far and wide the nation's renown. 
For a considerable while during my eai'ly medical career 
my diagnosis often led me to attribute the causes of men- 
tal inquietude and physical suffering among this circum- 
scribed order of men to inanition ; but if the literary 
squad, as old Dr. Tillary denominated them, preserve 
intact their wonted energies and privileges, their im- 
proved condition may sometiiues demand an alterative 
treatment corresponding with that robust state and 



221 

imposing plethora; in wliicli tliey so generally present 
themselves to our admiration and esteem. Personal 
observation and individual experience may have helped 
the great reform, for not a few must have learned the 
truth of the remark of the plaj^wright, George Col- 
man : " Authorship, as a profession, is a very good 
walking-stick, but very had crutches." For this salu- 
tary change in the Republic of Letters let all praise 
be given to knowledge more available, to the higher 
culture of the people, and to the patronage of our en- 
lightened publishers. I allude to such authors as Irving, 
Cooper, Bancroft, Taylor, Bryant, Halleck, and Pauld- 
ing, and refer to such patrons as the Appletons, the Har- 
pers, Scribner, Wiley and Putnam. I am limited to New 
York in these specifications. Let Sparks and Prescott, 
Ticknor, Longfellow, Holmes, Hawthorne and Everett 
speak of their Boston literary firms. What Chikls and 
Peterson have done for the generous enterprise of the 
lamented Kane, both in the mechanical execution of 
those endearing volumes, tlie Arctic Expedition, and 
in the returns secured by libei'al appropriation in ar- 
tistic display, is enough of itself for the renown of 
Philadelphia. Nor can I omit to notice in this con- 
nection, that the most complete and authentic Dic- 
tionary of Authors in our vernacular tongue is in pro- 
gress of publication under the auspices of this enter- 
prising house, for which noble monument of literary 
toil and industry we are indebted to the accomplished 
S. A. Allibone, of Pliiladelphia ; while in our own 
city, we are promised by D. Appleton & Co., ere long, 
a New Cyclopredia of General Knowledge, especially 
rich in native science and biography, prepared by the 
erudite and gifted editors, George Rij^ley and Charles 
A. Dana. 



ooo 



I believe I have secured tlie concurrence of my au- 
dience in tlie opinion that I have already said enough 
of the eventful Past in its complex relations with the 
New York Historical Society. If I mistake not, the 
narrative which I have given of the passing events and 
livinfr movements of our times elucidates the incalculable 
value of your Institution, and points out how indispen- 
sable is the duty to cherish that conservative element 
which your charter demands. The fragmentary in- 
formation brought together in this discourse may not 
be wholly without its use : it may serve at least to fur- 
nish some hints to subsequent writers who may venture 
to fill up, with higher aspirations, the mighty void 
which exists in the annals of this vast Metropolis. 
With the philosophical historian every new fact will 
be duly appreciated, the transitory nature of many oc- 
currences better understood in their relation to simul- 
taneous events, and the men of consequence in their 
day more faithfully estimated. Skill indeed will be 
demanded in selection and judgment in arrangement, 
but an enlarged vision will comprehend the truth that 
what seems temporary may sometimes become perma- 
nent, that what is local often becomes national. 

The task assigned me by your courtesy for this 
day's celebration has been executed amidst many cares, 
and not without apprehensions as to the result. The 
moments seized for preparation have not always been 
the most auspicious ; but my native feelings and my 
love of the olden times, have prompted the spirit and the 
tendency of this address. " Whatever," says the great 
moralist. Dr. Johnson, " makes the past, the distant, 
and the future predominate over the present, exalts us 
in the scale of thinkins; bein£]:s." None can feel more 
deeply than myself the imjierfect execution of the ser- 



223 

vice I have attempted, and none of its deficiencies 
causes greater uneasiness than the circumstance that T 
have omitted notice of many of the eminent dead 
whose names ought to be phiced on a record of grati- 
tude, for their hibors in behalf of this society in its 
earlier existence. While I am conscious that the men 
of to-day are not inferior to those whose rank they 
now supply, I have also been compelled to overlook 
a long catalogue of living worthies, who still co-ope- 
rate in the great design of rearing this Historical 
Institution to national consideration. Fortunfitely your 
printed Collections and Proceedings, a long series, 
have perpetuated the contributions of many of these 
distinguished members, and posterity will seek instruc- 
tion and delight in the discourses which you have pre- 
served of your Clinton and Verplanck, your Morris 
and Hosack, your Mitchill and Blunt, your Wheaton 
and Lawrence, your Kent and Butler, your Bradford 
and Bancroft. The records of your secretary will 
point out your indebtedness to those long tried mem- 
bers who have adhered to your interests in seasons of 
greatest depression; Chancellor Matthews, the founder, 
I may add, of our City University ; George B. Rapelye, 
a friend with a Knickerbocker's heart, who has often 
invigorated my statements by his minute knowledge ; 
Samuel Ward, a generous benefactor to your rich pos- 
sessions, and Albert Gallatin, many years your presid- 
ing officer, who needs no voucher of mine to place him 
in the front rank of intellectual mortals. 

The thousand and one occurrences which have 
weighed on my mind while in this attempt to sketch a 
picture of the times in New York during the past 
sixty years, have made the difficulty of choice per- 



224 

plexiiig to recollection aud embarrassing to the judg- 
ment. It might have been more acceptable to many 
had this Discourse been concentrated on some special 
topics of general interest, or that the imj^ortance of 
history as a philosophical study had been set forth, the 
better to urge the high claims which this institution 
proffers to the countenance and support of this enlight- 
ened community. I stand amenable to such criticism, 
yet I fain would trust that the leaves of memory which 
I have opened may not be altogether without their 
use. An indifferent observer of the events of so Ions* 
a period in a city of such progress, could not fail to 
have arrived at a knowledge of many things character- 
istic of the age and profitable as practical wisdom ; to 
one who has ever cherished a deep sympathy in what- 
ever adds to the renown of the city of his birth, or 
increases the benefits of its population, the accumula- 
tion of facts would naturally become almost formida- 
ble ; and while with becoming deference his aim on 
such an occasion as the present would lead him in his 
selection to group together, without tedious minute- 
ness, the more prominent incidents which have marked 
its career, it might be tolerated if he here and there, 
with fond reluctance, dwelt upon what most involved 
his feelings, even should the subject-matter prove in- 
efficient in popular importance. In the wide and fertile 
field which I have entered, it required an anthologist 
of rare gifts to select with wisdom products the 
healthiest, the richest, and most grateful for general 
acceptance, and most conducive to the general design. 
The inquiry may be fairly put, has the New York 
Historical Society stood an isolated institution during 
its loDg career, aud are its merits of an exclusive cha- 



225 

racter ? It may be promptly answered, No : It was 
preceded in its formation by the Massacliusetts His- 
torical Society, a briglit example for imitation, some 
ten or twelve years ; and it has been followed by the 
organization of many otlier historical societies formed 
in different and widely-distant states of the Union. 
They have grown up around her, not by the desire of 
imitation, but by the force of utility, and I will be 
bold enough to affirm, that consultation of their numer- 
ous volumes is indispensable to an author who aims at 
writing a faithful local or general history of the coun- 
try. I speak thus earnestly because I think these 
works are too much ovei'looked or neglected. The 
conjoint labors -of these several associations, with com- 
mendable diligence, are securing for future research, 
authentic materials touching events in history, in the 
arts, in science, in jurisprudence, and in literature; and 
if I mistake not, the intelligence of the people is 
awakened to their import ; individual pride and state 
ambition have been invoked in furtherance of the 
measure, and results productive of national good must 
crown the efforts. Truth, it is often said, is reserved 
for posterity — truth promulgated may be doubly for- 
tified by these historical societies. 

In the march of similar pursuits, we may notice 
the American Antiquarian Society, founded by the late 
Isaiah Thomas, and the Xew England Historical and 
Genealogical Society, a recent organization, whose 
labors however already amount to many volumes, aided 
by the herculean devotion of Samuel Gr. Drake, and 
the still more recent Historical Magazine published by 
Eichardson, of Boston. This last-named periodical 
o-ives promise of excellence of the highest order. 



2-2 (^ 

I would call attention to our New York Ethno- 
logical Society, now founded several years. Its volumes 
which have met the eye, evince that the Association 
has adepts among its members able to throw light on 
the most intricate subjects of human inquiry. Its 
present president is the learned Dr. Robinson, so dis- 
tinguished in philology and biblical literature. 

Still more recently a Geographical Society ha« 
sprung up among us. Though of but short duration, 
its transactions have commanded approbation both 
abroad and at home. Among its leading members is 
Henry Grinnell, the well-known promoter of the Arctic 
expeditions under the direction of Captain Kane. The 
Rev. Dr. Hawks, the archaeologist, is the present head 
of this association. 

As connected with the great design of promoting 
useful knowledge, the institution of the Lyceum of 
Katural History in this city may be included in the 
number. This association has now been in operation 
forty years. It was founded by Mitchill in union with 
Dr. Torrey, the late Dr. Townsend, and a few others. 
The Lyceum is most strictly devoted to natural history ; 
it created an early impulse to studies illustrative of 
our natural products in the several kingdoms of nature, 
and it is familiarly recognized for its novel and able 
contributions. Many of the rarest treasures of our 
marine waters have become known by the investigations 
of the Lyceum: among its scientific su2:)porters, are 
Torrey, De Kay, Cooper, Le Conte, and Jay. Like the 
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the 
Boston Natural History Society, and the Society of 
Charleston, S. C, with its President Holbrook, its 
opinions are authoritative. 



227 

The impulse given to intellectual labor in these, 
our own times, is still further shown in the completion 
of that great undertaking, the Natural History of the 
State of New York. This vast project was, I believe, 
commenced during the administration of Governor 
Seward, and if we value science by the research which 
it displays, this extensive work presents claims of un- 
questionable excellence to our recognition. Its able 
authors, with a scrutinizing observation that has never 
tired, have unfolded the richness of cur native produc- 
tions to the delight of the naturalist and to the culti- 
vators of our domestic resources. The work is a last- 
ing memorial of the public sj^irit of the state, and an 
index to the legislative wisdom of its rulers. The feli- 
citous introduction to the entire series of volumes 
from the pen of Governor Seward, will always be 
perused with emotions of patriotic pride. Associated 
with another measure not less public spirited, is tlie 
Documentary History of the State of New York, 
under the direction of executive authority, and pre- 
pared for the press by the editorial supervision of Dr. 
O'Callaghan. Its importance cannot be over-estimated ; 
and the judgment displayed in the disposition of its 
multifarious materials, increases the desire that no im- 
pediment may arrest the completion of a miscellany of 
knowledge hitherto inaccessible. Less could not be 
said of the labors of Dr. 0'Callagh.an, when we remem- 
ber that these documents include the Brodhead Papers. 

Is it speaking too earnestly, when it is said that the 
Republic at large appears determined to secure her 
history from doubt and uncertainty? Associations for 
the pi'eservation of historical materials seem springing 
up in every state. We find them in the north and in 



228 

the south, in the east and iu the west ; and hav^e learn- 
ed that reliarious denominations are ensfaired in like 
duties, to secure authentic records of the trials and 
progress of their respective creeds. In our own city 
the Bai:)tists have formed an histoi'ical society, at the 
head of which is the venerable David T. Valentine, 
the editor of the Corporation Manual, which yearly 
enlarges our topogi'aphical and civil history ; and an 
association of the Protestant Episcoi)al ftiith has re- 
cently pu]j>lished two volumes of Historical Records in 
illustration of the early condition of the Church. All 
this looks well, and I am confident that our associa- 
tion contemplates with pleasurable emotions these 
rival efforts in so good a cause. 

The New York Historical Society has work enough 
for her strongest energies to accomplish. The state 
under whose auspices she flourishes, is indeed an em- 
pire ; the transactions which claim her consideration pos- 
sess an inherent greatness, and are momentous in their 
nature ; her colonial career is pregnant with instructive 
events ; the advances she has made, and the condition 
she has secured in her state policy, afford lessons 
which the wisest may study with profit. Long neglect 
has only increased the duty of investigation, and added 
value to every new revelation offered. The Hudson 
and ]^^iagara are but types of her physical formation. 
Her geology has dissolved the theories of the closet, 
and given new principles to geognostic science. Her 
men of action have been signally neglected. Feeble 
records only are to be found of her most eminent 
statesmen. Where shall we look, throughout our 
country's annals, for a more heroic spirit, one of 
more personal courage, of greater devotion to his coun- 



229 

try, one greater in greatest trial, one of more decision 
of character, one of sterner integrity, than Gov. George 
Clinton, to whom this State and the Union are under 
such mighty obligations ; and yet we fruitlessly search 
for a worthy memorial of him. Fellow associates, I 
repeat it, there is work enough to do. 

I have spoken of history and its many relations. 
History the schoolmen have divided into sacred and 
profane. All history may be deemed sacred, inasmuch 
as it teaches the ways of God, whose eternity knows 
neither time nor space, and unfolds the anatomy of 
that microcosm man, the image of his Maker. History 
is a deep philosophy, yet capable of appropriation to 
vulgar designs ; it is a prodigious monitor, a mighty 
instructor. Be it our aim to use it for beneficent ends, 
cherishing as a rule of life the revealed truth, that 
there is a still higher wisdom within our reach, and that 
our intelligence, however great, must recognize the in- 
flexible sentence, uttered of old ; the tree of knowledge 
is not the tree of life. 

Mr. President: 

For a series of years you have held the elevatea 
office of head of the Historical Society. The distin- 
guished men, your predecessors, who have filled that 
prominent station, have, I believe, all departed. You 
stand the sole representative of a long list of worthies 
who have discharged trusts similar to those committed 
to you, and which your wisdom and experience in pub- 
lic councils and in state affairs have enabled you to 
fortify with an ability which reflects credit on your 
administration, and has proved signally advantageous 
to this institution. The duties which have devolved 



230 

on you may at times Lave been onerous, but if I can 
fathom your nature, must have proved grateful to your 
feelings, and congenial to your patriotism. Your 
copious reading had made you familiar with the great 
events of the two wars, which this state waged, and 
in which she was so great a sufferer, but in which she 
proved successful : more valuable materials, growing 
out of such circumstances, for the future historian could 
not be gathered from any other colony. This society, 
amidst its other treasures, has secured for the most part 
these precious documents ; and from the period at which 
New York assumed the sovereignty of an independent 
State, there are few intervals pregnant with important 
events the records of which are not to be found in our 
archives. Thus, Sir, if ever an association adhered with 
fidelity to a literal interpretation of its chai'ter power, 
it may be affirmed to be that in whose transactions you 
have taken so deep an interest. The work demanded 
intelligence, and it received it ; it called for devotion 
and earnestness, and they were at hand ; and thus was 
secured that continuity of effort so requisite to accom- 
plish the undertaking. With what judgment the work 
has been executed, must be left to the decision of our 
arbiters, the public ; I fear not the verdict. 

Scholarship, the learned have said, was a rare ac- 
quisition in England, until the time of Bentley. It 
may as truthfully be asserted, that until the career of 
our founder commenced, there was little antiquarian 
zeal among us ; and hence you may have perceived, 
that on several occasions I have ventured to place Joim 
PiNTAKD in the foremost ground in the picture. The 
head and the heart of our eastern brethren exercise a 
warmer devotion for knowledge of this nature, than is 



231 

found elsewhere iu our TJuiou ; aud the rare example 
on that account of my old friend proffered its claims 
to my notice in strongest accents. Let me say, Sir, 
that the forerunner in the course you so triumphantly 
have maintained, was not a mere holiday officer, but 
an untiring laborer in the great design. The talent 
he possessed was of peculiar value, and under certain 
circumstances mio^lit have commanded the hiirhest 
premium. He had a fitness for the work, and none 
can rob him of the honor. 

Your able Vice-Presidents have, I believe, concurred 
with you, at all times, in furtherance of those enlarged 
plans and that policy, which, as occasion demanded, 
have proved most salutary to the institution. Their 
enlightened cooperation must, on some occasions, have 
lessened individual responsibility, and lightened per- 
plexities in the path of duty. I am inclined to think, 
that there is an unity of opinion throughout the society 
in commendation of the manner in which the various 
services, rendered by your fiscal and other committees, 
your secretaries, corresponding and recording, have 
been discharged. In times like these, sagacity in 
finance may be acknowledged wisdom of the highest 
order ; and the fruits of sound forethought, when de- 
monstrated by palpable results, yield arguments that 
cannot be demolished. I have but to add, that your 
intelligent and indefatigable librarian has nobly ful- 
filled his accountable appointment. Every thing around 
me leads to the conviction that your literary treasures 
have been preserved ; your IMS. records regarded at a 
proper estimate ; your library so disposed, that every 
accommodation can be given to the searcher after wis- 
dom in this curious rejoository of historical material. 



232 

Where all deserve commendation, and there remains 
nothing for censure, conscious rectitude yields unadul- 
terated satisfaction to official capacity. 

Mr. President : An abiding conviction prevails, that 
the interests of the society have been in proper hands, 
and controlled by wise councils. The memory of your 
administration will long endure with us. The orna- 
mental and stately edifice, in which we are now 
gathered, erected by the liberality of our citizens, and 
in an especial manner by that class so often found 
generous in good works, the mercantile community, 
will, I trust, stand, for generations to come, a monu- 
ment of the public spirit of New York — of her love 
and devotion to the refined and useful — and vindicate 
to the rising youth of the nation the estimate which 
their fathers formed of the blessings of wisdom derived 
from pure historical truth. If I am rightly informed, 
I stand before you, at this Anniversary, the oldest 
livino^ member of this association. Yet have I con- 
soled myself with the pleasing thought, while medi- 
tating on the eventful occurrences of this day, that 
although the sun of my declining years is nearly set, 
its last rays, however feeble, are reflected from the 
classical walls of the New York Historical Society. 



rmis. 



FROCEEDINaS 



NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 



DEDICATION OF THE LIBRARY, 



TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1857. 



NEW YORK: 
PRINTED FOR THE SOCIETY 

M DCCC LVIL 



mtutxs cf th Bnuih 1^57. 



PRESIDENT, 

LUTHER BRADISH. 

FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT, 

THOMAS DE WITT, D.D. 

SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT, 

FREDERIC DE DEYSTER. 

FOREIGN CORRESPONDINa SECRETARY, 

EDWARD ROBINSOX, D.D. 

DOMESTIC CORRESPONDING SECRETARY, 

SAMUEL OSGOOD, D.D. 

RECORDING SECRETARY, 

ANDREW WARNER. 

TREASURER, 

WILLIAM CHAUNCEY. 

LIBRARIAN, 

GEORGE HENRY MOORE. 



AUGUSTUS SCHELL, Chairman. 
MARSHALL S. BIDWELL. 
BENJAMIN H. FIELD. 
FRANCIS L. HAWKS, D. D. 
JOHN ROMEYN BRODHEAD. 
ERASTUS C. BENEDICT. 
BENJ. ROBERT WINTHROP. 



Sccrctarn of t^c Ciccutitit (Committee, 

GEORGE HENRY MOORE. 



;jD) itBrlv lislonnil S«ntt!!. 



DEDICATION OF THE IIBKARY, 

NOVEMBER 3, 1857. 



The Society assembled in the Lecture Eoom, at the usual 
hour. As the evening was devoted to the dedication of the 
building, by ceremonies directed to be observed by the Com- 
mittee of Arrangements appointed at a previous meeting, the 
ordinary business was dispensed with, except the report of the 
Executive Committee on nominations, and nominations of new 
members. 

Prayer was then offered by the Eev. Thomas De Witt, 
D. D., First Yice President of the Society. 

The Hon. Luther Bradish, President, then addressed 
the Society, as follows : 

ADDRESS OP THE PRESIDENT. 

We are at length assembled for the first time under our own roof. 
The New York Historical Society has passed its nomadic state, and has 
at last found a fixed and permanent home. From wandering for half a 
century, the tenants at will of others, we come this evening to take 
possession, as our own, of this beautiful temple, with all its ample ac- 
commodations, and to dedicate them to the cause of history and of art 



6 

— of liistory in its broadest sense, and of art in its illustrations of his- 
tory. 

Here, for tlie benefit of the present and future generations, will 
history garner up its treasures. Here will each succeeding age, for the 
instruction of those to come after it, bring its record of the current 
events of time. And here, too, in the future, will the Genius of History 
from these accumulated treasures, construct its variegated but harmoni- 
ous narrative — showing the relations and dependencies of apparently 
isolated events, and exhibiting the great truth that the histories of seem- 
ingly detached periods, instead of forming integral subjects complete in 
themselves, are but parts of the universal system of that Providence 
which, in infinite intelligence and wisdom, governs the world. 

Here, too, in this fitting temple, will art lend the light and the fasci- 
nation of its illustrations to the great truths of history. The genius 
which inspired the imagination and guided the pencil of Raphael, of 
Michael Angelo, of Rubens, and of Murillo, will hereafter cover these 
walls with its beautiful creations, illustrative of the men, the manners, 
and the events of the time ; and prove to mankind that in art the pres- 
ent is not inferior to the past, or the New World to the Old. 

Sculpture, too, whose magic power can call from the inert and 
shapeless mass the ideal semblance of animated and intellectual life, 
even in its sublimest forms ; which can give to marble, in the graceful 
lineaments of female [form and loveliness its chisel traces, the combined 
expression of the shrinking delicacy of female modesty and the foi'ce 
and dignity of conscious virtue ; which, in its magical transfoi'mations, 
can exhibit, in the quarried block, the first dawn of civilization, and the 
first springing of celestial hope in the bosom of a graceful daughter of 
the forest; or can in marble symbolize the ethereal spirit's flight from 
darkness into light, and from time to eternity — this noble art will here- 
after adorn these galleries with the productions of its genius, and prove 
to the world that America, too, can furnish names worthy to be asso- 
ciated with those of Thorwaldsen and Canova, of Phidias and Praxi- 
teles. 

The burin of the engraver, too, will lend its aid to enrich our o-al- 
leries, and in its representations of both painting and sculpture, exhibit 
the magic of light and shade, the grace of outline and the beauty of de- 
sign. Thus will these several departments of art conspire to illustrate 
and give additional interest to the truths of history, and therebv advance 
tlie proper objects of this society. 

Ten years have passed away since the project of this building first 



received a definite form. In 1847 tlie New York Historical Society, 
then comparatively few in numbers, and feeble in pecimiary resources, 
but deeply impressed with the great and increasing value of its library 
and collections, and with the danger to which they were exposed, took 
the incipient steps for the erection of a new fire-proof edifice, for the re- 
ception and preservation of that library and those collections, and for 
the general accommodation of the Society, This enterprise, under the 
circumstances, might well, as it did, to the timid and even prudent, seem 
hardy. It was indeed bold. For the Society resolved upon an under- 
taking of great magnitude and importance, involving a large expendi- 
ture of money, without having in its treasury a single dollar for its 
achievement. But the Society relied upon the intelligence and known 
liberality of New York, in the confident belief that her public sjOTit 
would not permit an object of such conceded merit, and of so great 
public concernment, to fail for want of the necessary means for its ac- 
complishment. It was, therefore, determined that an appeal, accom- 
panied by a statement of fiicts, should be made to the public generally, 
and to the friends of historical literature in particular, for aid in the ac- 
complishment of this great object of general interest. Most nobly did 
the public of New York respond to this appeal, and by its liberality and 
public spirit in promptly furnishing the requisite pecuniary means, fully 
justify the confidence of the Society and the wisdom of its enterprise. 
To collect and apply those means, however, has required a long time, 
great effort, and continued perseverance. But the success which has at 
length crowned persevering effort, should render us insensible to the 
exertions which have achieved that success ; and, in the important good 
thus accomplished, we should forget the personal sacrifices it has cost 
and regard only the new hopes it inspires, and the increased responsi- 
bilities it involves. 

On the I7th of October, 1855, this enterprise, thus commenced, had 
progressed with such encouraging success, that the corner stone of the 
present building was laid, and the work thenceforward steadily advanced. 
That liberality and public spirit which were so nobly manifested at the 
inception of this enterprise, still accompanied its continued prosecution, 
until, in this finished and beautiful structure, you now behold the con- 
summation of an enterprise commenced in weakness, but in hope, perse- 
veringly prosecuted in anxiety and with great effort, and at length 
crowned with ample and entire success. The two cardinal conditions, 
also, upon which this enterprise was undertaken, have been feitlifully 
observed, and are this evening fulfilled. This new edifice was to be 



fire-proof. Tt is substantially so; and, when complctcil, no debt was to 
remain upon the Society on account of it. This, also, is true. The 
report of the Trustees of the Building Fund, which will be presented to 
you in the course of the evening, will, among other interesting details, 
announce the gratifying fact that, after faithfully discharging every just 
obligation incurred in procuring the site, and in the erection of this new 
fire-proof edifice, there will still remain, on account of this special fund, 
a balance to go towards the furnishing of the building for the uses of the 
Society. The further sum required to complete the payments for the 
necessary furniture of the building, alone now remains to be provided 
for. A voluntary contribution of a very few dollars from each member 
of the Society would abundantly supply the deficiency, and fully accom- 
pIMi the desired object of finally closing this great enterprise. This 
small sum would in each case bear but a very inconsiderable proportion to 
the greatly increased accommodations and advantages procured to each 
member of the Society by the very satisfactory completion of this enter- 
prise. Thus the two original and important conditions of this enterprise 
are this evening fulfilled. Your building is essentially fire-proof, and 
there will remain upon the Society, on accoimt of it and its site, no debt, 
except, indeed, one of deep gratitude to tliose munificent patrons of the 
enterprise who have generously furnished the means of its accomplish- 
ment. To those generous patrons we point to this ne^v and beautiful 
structure as an enduring and fit monument to their own. liberality and 
public spirit. To the Society generally who originally projected and 
undertook this enterprise, and has watched with the deepest interest its 
progress and its completion, we present this noble edifice, witli all its 
tasteful arrangements, its ample accommodations, and its admirable 
adaptation to its objects, as the reward of its entei'prise, its persevei'ance 
and its ultimate and complete success. 

With the successful accomplishment of this enterprise, a new and 
brighter era in the history of tliis Society is inaugurated. With these 
enlai-ged accommodations, and these greatly increased facilities, for the 
prosecution and accomplishment of its objects, the responsibilities of the 
Society are correspondingly increased. In proportion, as its libi-ary and 
collections are rendered more safe and more available, will be the in- 
ducement and the obligations of the Society to extend the former and 
enlarge the latter. 

That these new and increased responsibilities will, in the future, be 
fully and honorably met by the Society, we have an assurance in its 



9 

past history. But, for the ability to meet in a fit and becoming man- 
ner these new and increased responsil>ilities by increased activity, en- 
larged operations, and more extended usefulness, we must still look to 
the continued encouragement and patronage of that generous public 
which smiled so benignly upon the infancy of the Society ; which has so 
generously fostered its youth, and which surely will not withhold from 
its ripening manhood the encouragement it may liereafter need, and 
shall deserve. Let it then be our object as a society fully to merit the 
patronage we seek. Let us, in entering npon the new and more bril- 
liant career now opened before us, go forward with new energy and 
increased zeal ; and, by judicious administration and greater activity in 
our operations, justify the appeals made to the public in our behalf, giv- 
ing back to that public the cultivated fruits of its own munificence ; and 
thus rendering this Society what, if wisely conducted, it cannot fail to 
\)Q — both an ornament and a blessing to New York and our country. 

Frederic de Peyster, Esq., Chairman of the Trustees 
of the Building Fund, submitted and read a report from that 
body. 

R E P K T . 

To the New York Historical Society : 

The doubts and anxieties of the past have vanished, and the expec- 
tations of the Trustees, and, may they hope, of the Society, are realized 
by the accomplishment of the work committed to their charge. You 
have this evening met to dedicate this spacious edifice to the important 
and deeply interesting objects, for the promotion of which this Society 
was organized. Upwards of a half century has passed away since a , 
few public-spirited individuals met together to form an association for 
" the purpose of discovering, procuring, and preserving whatever may 
relate to the natural, civil, literary, and ecclesiastical history of the 
United States in general, and of this State in particular." 

Such was and is the design of this Institution, as expressed in the 
original act of its incorporation, on the 10th of February, 1809; 
amended and continued in force by subsequent acts, and its charter, 
without limitation as to time, finally confirmed on the 2d of February, 
184G, subject only to the usual restriction provided in all jiublic acts. 

During this semi-centennial existence, the Society has been without 
a permanent abode of its own; its treasures of historical materials were 
subjected to the injury of frequent removals, and liable at all times, in 
their insecure places of deposit, to be destroyed by fire. It has been a 



10 

\\anderer from place to place during tLese many years, but now, like the 
vayworu traveller, it has reached its home, and looks with pleased 
satisfaction on this abode for the various collections, gathered during 
these journeyings. Here it can display its various contributions, pre- 
serve its precious repository of the past, and make this library, with its 
constantly inci'easing additions, worthy of our city, State, and country. 

The trustees, to whom the funds were confided for the construction 
of this fire-proof building, present themselves before you, on this inter- 
esting occasion, to report the disposition which has been made of these 
ia the execution of their duties. From the incipient step in this enter- 
prise, taken by the Society on the 1st of June, 1847, to its final con- 
summation this day, a period of more than ten years has elapsed of 
continuous effort and varying solicitude. The Society had resolved upon 
a measure, for the attainment of which no means were provided, neces- 
sarily involving a large expenditure. 

To collect and apply these means was an onerous undertaking, and 
could only be accomplished by strong, persevering, and well-directed 
efforts. 

The trustees rejoice that it is accomplished, and that the hour has 
arrived when they can throw open the doors of this library for your re- 
ception, exhibit its collections, and tender to you their cordial congratu- 
lations on its final completion. A few small claims only remain yet to 
be paid, for the liquidation of which there is a sufficient fund reserved. 

The five annual and the special reports, from time to time heretofore 
presented, exhibit the history of this enterprise and show the progress 
made in collecting funds; the difficulties encountered in the successsive 
attempts, and the successful effort finally accomplished in obtaining the 
requisite addition, which the liberal hearts of the liberal men of this 
great commercial city generously contributed. 

It is not for those who now address you to speak of the architectural 
design of the building, of its style of decoration, or of the taste displayed 
in its exterior and interior appearance, and of the conveniences pi'ovided 
for the suitable arrangement of its numerous collections. They submit 
to the Society and the public these results; and if they meet their ap- 
probation, it will be a sufficient compensation for personal sacrifices and 
an honest endeavor to discharge fjxithfully their trust. 

In the gallery specially set apart for the reception and preservation of 
the books and newspapers, and for their ready and convenient examination, 
these various collections are systematically arranged. In the apartment 
separately provided for our invaluable manuscripts, these unique treas- 



11 

ures are similarly placed, where they can easily be referred to, and, to 
the greatest extent, secured from loss, depredation, or injury. Kising 
above these is the gallery devoted to the productions of art, which 
crowns, as it were, the whole. It contains the portraits of many men 
of our own land, who have made their names and their country illus- 
trious by their talents and virtues ; and evidences also of the genius of 
men like Cole, who have dignified the Arts of Design by the brilliant 
creations of their pencil. 

The collections which comprise the printed and manuscript mate- 
rials have been catalogued under the skilful care of our Librarian, and 
the Catalogue is now passing through the press. 

There will also be a catalogue of the Gallery i f Art ; and it will 
furnish to the members a satisfactory estimate of the extent and )ich- 
ness of the entire collection. 

On these extensive shelves, are placed, let us trust, in perpetual pre- 
servation, for the benefit of historical research, the proofs of those meas- 
ures which led to the declaration of our country's independence; of 
the character of the men and their measures which achieved that inde- 
pendence ; and of tlie causes and their eft'ects, which are exhibited in 
the growth, power, resources, and extension of our Republic ; stretching 
as it now does its giant limbs from ocean to ocean — from the regions of 
the hardy north to the genial climes of the sunny south. Its citizens 
have reached, in the march of empire, its western bound ; and from 
thence look forth over the wide expanse of ocean to the opposite 
shores of Asia — prepared, when the hour arrives, to aid more fully in 
extending to that primal land of our race, the blessings and civilization of 
Christianity. 

The earliest measure which occupied the attention of the trustees, 
was the appointment of its standing committees of finance, and on the 
building, and a treasurer of the fund. The duties which devolved upon 
that ofHcer, and upon these several committees, the trustees are happy 
to have it in their power to say, have been most faithfully and zealously 
performed. 

The committee to whom was committed the construction of the 
building, the preparation of the various contracts, the supervision of the 
work, and of the materials provided, and the expenditure of the fund, 
liave with unremitted exertion, continued watchfulness, and great sacri- 
fice of time and labor accomplished the results you this day witness. 

They have made their final report to the trustees, from which it 
appears there have been, at various rimes and in dift'erent forms, ex- 



12 

peiided for the site, twelve thousand and ninety-seven dollars and fifty- 
one cents ; on the building, sixty-nine thousand four hundred and seven 
dollars and thirty cents, and for furnishing the same, three thousand 
two hundred and thirty-five dollars and three cents, making together an 
aggregate of eighty-four thousand seven hundred and thirty-nine dollars 
and eighty-four cents. 

The details of these several items are set forth in the account cur- 
rent, annexed to and which forms part of their Report. 

Thus it appears that the Building Fund has been sufficient to de- 
fray the expense of the site and of this edifice ; leaving a balance to be 
applied to the furnishing of the building. 

Persons not familiar with the difiiculties of such an enterpiise, exe- 
cuted under similar circumstances, cannot be aware of the unavoidable 
delays incident thei-eto. The procuring of a design for a fire-proof 
Library edifice, adapted to the uses and to meet in all respects the wishes 
of the Society, was a matter of great moment and careful con- 
sideration. 

Then, the procuring of the contracts from responsible parties for the 
several departments into which the work divided itself, also occupied 
necessarily much care and preparation. The Committee in these mat- 
ters were efficiently aided by the Architects, Messrs. Mettam and Burke, 
whose attention and vigilance were unremitted in guarding the interests 
of the Society, and advancing the work done. 

The Committee state that it has been their endeavor, with the 
means at their disposal, to carry out the views of the trustees, and to 
accomplish the objects of the Society, in the highest degree practica- 
ble. Their constant aim has been to erect a building best suited to 
the purposes of the Society, creditable to its taste, and honorable to its 
patrons and the public. How far they have succeeded in this their 
constant and earnest endeavor, the Committee submit to the trustees, 
the Society, and the public. 

If the committee on the building, to adopt their own language, " are 
so fortunate as to meet their approbation, they will feel amply com- 
pensated for all the efi'ort, anxiety, and personal sacrifices, wddch a 
discharge of the duties devolved upon them has necessarily involved." 

The Report of that committee is on file with the documents, to be 
preserved in grateful remembrance of its services, cheerfully given and 
faithfully executed. 

It only remains, in this connection, for the trustees to add, that when 
the few debts yet to be paid are settled, and for the payment of which, 



13 

as before stated, there is a fund in hand reserved, they will avail them- 
selves of the earliest opportunity to communicate this desired result ; 
and on that occasion submit their final Report, and surrender up the 
building, with its appurtenances, to the Society. 

Cicero aptly termed Herodotus the " Father of History" — and 
History itself " the light of truth." Herodotus first gave to the world a 
general history adorned with the graces of a pure eloquence, and with 
that attractive simplicity, which was the prominent characteristic of 
all the more prominent of the most ancient authors. 

His Bust, therefore, is properly placed above the portico which 
leads to these extensive galleries, repositories of facts, principles, and 
discoveries. From these may some congenial mind compose an " His- 
torical Essay," which like that shall add to his own perpetual renown, 
and prove by his work the value, though less ambitious design, of our 
own. 

The direct object of his work was to recount the victorious strug- 
gles of the Greeks with the Persians. F>ut in tracing the causes of the 
events related, and in describing other nations connected with these 
events, he was led into the interesting and valuable digressions which 
constitute the remarkable portions of his book. It has been illustrated 
by the wisdom and matured experience of later ages; is confirmed in 
its material details by the learning of congenial minds; and abounds 
in a variety of information, touching the manners, customs, and national 
traits of which he speaks ; and to which in many instances this highly 
distinguished author has furnished the only key of knowledge. 

Thus, as an emblem of the objects which this Society has specially 
in view, this Bust proclaims from without to the passing inquirer the 
design of this Historical Library. 

By the collections we are engaged in preserving and increasing, by 
every practicable measure, we are enlarging the means of historical in- 
quiry and investigation, relating to the several departments classified in 
our Charter. In process of time this Library cannot fail to become bet- 
ter known and extensively consulted; and the just expectation may be 
indulged, that, by its intrinsic worth and amplitude of materials, it will 
become the great central resort for historical investigations of every 
kind, and give to our city and State the enviable distinction of possessing 
the best and most extensive Historical Library in this portion of the 
globe. 

When Cicero was Qusestor in Sicily, his first object, on arriving 
there, was to visit the tomb of Archimedes. The officials of Syracuse, 



14 

who waited upon him, being ignorant of its existence, he persevered in 
the search, which resulted in the discovery of the small column, hid by 
the surrounding undergrowth, on which, with great difficulty, was traced 
the almost illegible name of the great geometrician. 

One hundred and thirty-six years liad only elapsed since the Roman 
soldier slew the intellectual giant of Syracuse, whose dead body the 
Roman general entombed with honors becoming his genius. The sim- 
ple inscription would have altogether perished, had not Cicero's admira- 
tion and perseverance made it immortal. 

Little more than three quarters of a century have elapsed, and a 
citizen of these United States, in ardent admiration of the men who fell 
martyrs in the cause which made his country free and independent, 
might in vain seek for the places where some of these eminent patriots 
wei'e interred ! Already are many of these forgotten — nay, irrevocably 
obliterated ! Over others the monumental stone has been placed, and 
the name of the illustrious dead inscribed on it ; but, like the letters on 
the column of the world-renowned Syracusan — their names are al- 
most effaced. Some patriot hand, like Old Mortality, must deepen with 
his chisel their almost obliterated inscriptions ; some patriot pen, stirred 
by the incidents in the lives of these martyrs, perpetuate, by their biog- 
raphies, the memory of their deeds ; or, from these records around you, 
some gifted mind, touched with the sentiments which valor and AvortL 
never fail to create, must give to the world the knowledge and the bene- 
fit of their example. 

The scholiast tells us, that when the friends of Pytheas, who had 
conquered in the Nemaan games, came to Pindar, with the request 
that he would write an ode on liis victory, the poet demanded a sum 
which they refused to give. " We can have," say they, " a brazen 
statue for the money, which will be better than a poem." Changing 
their minds, however, they returned and offered him what he demanded. 
Upon this hint Pindar formed the graceful exordium, which has been 
thus elegantly translated : 

" It is not mine, with forming hand, 
To make a lifeless image stand 

For ever on its base ; 
But fly, my verses, and proclaim 
To distant lands, with deathless fame, 

That Pytheas conquered in the rapid race !' 

The poet's verse has proved more imperishable than a memorial ot 



15 

brass ! and the victors triumph pales before the fire of genius, as mind 
rises triumphant over matter. 

Here in this Library, the monument of the enterprise and HberaHty 
of ^Metropohtan New York, are contained the materials which testify 
to the growth, the power, and the extent of the country, and its natural 
resources and greatness. Here also are treasured up many celebrated 
works of her living sons, and testimonials of her honored dead. This 
Society enrolls in its list of members men eminently distinguished at 
the Bar, on the Bench, and in the Pulpit ; also men of renown in the 
councils of the nation, and in our Congressional and Legislative Halls, 
and also of others well known to fame for their successful efforts in the 
several departments specified in our Charter. 

She also numbers among her members the accomplished Historians 
of the United States and of this State, and also many whose genius, 
learning, and literary productions have added wreaths to the chaplet 
which adorns their native or adopted land. Among these shines, with 
the brilliancy of the " Koh-i-noor " among diamonds, the gifted author 
of the Sketch-Book, the varied productions of whose pen are as fa- 
miliarly known as the sparkling wit, humor, and pathos with which 
they abound. 

From these invaluable collections around you, some member of our 
Society, imbued with the spirit of the subject, may yet arise, like 
Herodotus, " to rescue from oblivion the memory of former incidents,'' 
yet untold ; and " to render a just tribute to the many great and won- 
derful actions" of Americans, living and dead; whose names, though 
not as yet emblazoned on the recoixls of History, are, however, en- 
shrined in the hearts of their countrymen. 

Yours is the monument, which we this evening dedicate, to the 
preservation and dissemination of Historic Truth. His will be the 
" deathless fame " of such an " Essay ;" the best and an indelible in- 
scription to commemorate fellow-members, your own incorporated As- 
sociation. 

By Order of the Trustees, 

(Signed) FREDERIC De PEYSTER, 

Chairman. 
Xew York, Nov. 3, 1857. 

Dr. John W. Francis moved the acceptance of the report, 
which motion was seconded by Mr. Banceoft, as follows : 



16 

REMARKS OF MR. BANCROFT. 

The Committee of Arrangements have assigned me the pleasing 
duty of seconding the motion for the acceptance of the Report. This 
beautiful and convenient building is the endowment for history made 
by the citizens and especially by the merchants of New York. It is 
their afiectionate tribute in commemoration of the honorable fame of 
their ancestors, the varied fortunes of this great commonwealth, and 
that sympathy which binds the present generation with every genera- 
tion of mankind that has gone before. Assembled here, we feel that 
events do not occur without adequate causes; that for everything there 
is a reason ; and that there are no gaps in the chain that connects the 
past with the present ; that the institutions of to-day are but the neces- 
sary development of former time ; that this moment in our existence, 
though often imperceptibly and in minute degrees, reflects light from 
all preceding ages. In an especial manner our own cit}^ and our own 
State have the most diversified afliuities with ancient forms of civiliza- 
tion. The son of a merchant of the Venetian republic first ran down 
our coast. A fellow-citizen of Dante and Michael Angelo, under the 
banner of France, found out the channel into our harbor. When the 
fulness of time came for the establishment of a colony on this shore, 
Holland summoned Hudson from ranoinji' amono- the iao-cfed rocks of 
Spitzbergen and the icy mists of the Straits of Veigatz to lead the way 
in ascending our noble river ; just as afterwards, when the great men of 
the age went forth, not like Titans to destroy, but with the better ener- 
gies of creative power to lay the foundations of our Union, a Hamil- 
ton, whose cradle had been rocked by the breezes of the tropics, was 
called from the Antilles to plead for the adoption of the federal Consti- 
tution. Here assembled the first Congress of 1765 ; here the New York 
sons of liberty sent forth the first invitation for that of 1*774; on our 
soil was won the decisive victory of independence, and here Washing- 
ton inaugurated national freedom and union. The moment of planting 
the institutions of cultivated man within our limits was marked by 
whatever is most romantic in American history. The interior of the 
State was occupied by that wonderful people who had advanced furthest 
among savages in civil polity and confederations ; and while all that 
was most daring in adventure, all that was most self-sacrificing in re- 
ligion, were entering on the one side with Champlain and the Catholic 
missions ; on the other, the great commercial republic of Europe, the 
forerunner and fostering example for America, was preparing to take 
possession of Albany and Manhattan. In the Old World, republican 



17 

government has fallen on evil days — and a kingdom has taken the 
place of the glorious Dutch union of sovereign states. But if the liv- 
ing waters of freedom have diminished in that European land, through 
which they once flowed most brightly, they are but as the fountain of 
Arethusa, which disappears only to gush forth again in a happier clime. 
America claims a share of the honors due to Chaucer, and Raleigh, and 
Shakspearc — the English literature that preceded the first planting of 
Virginia. The glory of the Dutch republic is peculiarly our inheritance. 
The republican liberty of the Netherlands, which was vindicated by a 
contest longer and more trying than that of Athens with Persia, is to be 
found only here. It is ours, all ours. The banks of the Hudson are 
its asylum, where it renews its perennial youth like the eagle. The 
gift of this building has another significance; it is one of many 
proofs that the busiest city is the most genial home for literature. 
Where there is the most action, there there must be the most thought. 
The world of the scholar and the world of the man of aftairs are all 
one. The widest connections furnish the greatest opportunity of con- 
centrating knowledge, and the readiest means for its diff"usion. In such 
a community there is no possibility of a dead calm, of a stagnation of 
mind. The ever-moving winds of controversy winnow opinions, and 
the fire of truth is kept alive and fed by contributions from all climes. 
And what city is bound by more associations and ties to all parts of the 
world than our New York ? At one moment one of its sons discovers 
the Antarctic continent; at another, a ship from our wharves is planted 
by a man of heroic mould, illustrious in his youth, — the immortal Kane, 
— among the icebergs of Greenland, as the imperishable monument 
that of all the flags in the world the stars and stripes have approached 
nearest to the pole. But if we would see the intimate connection of 
our city with every part of the globe and the many nations of the earth, 
we have only to look about us, not at the magazines of our merchants, 
where, indeed, every thing is gathered together from ocean and fi-om 
land for the support, the comfort, and the grace of life, but at the men 
movinof in our streets, representing as they do not our own country 
only, not England and Holland only, but every nation of Europe 
from Cadiz to Warsaw, from Ireland to the Isles of Greece ; so 
that by necessity the civilization of all those lands is intertwined with 
ours. The seers who look into futurity abound in their eulogies of the 
coming commercial greatness of New York, when its proportion of the 
mercantile marine shall be still greater than it is now, and it shall be 
the centre of the exchanges of the world; when its population shall fill 
2 



18 

tliis islaiul, and, like a branching vine, cover all the lands around. But 
this superiority in material resources is not enough ; the crowning glory 
of New York must be its advancement in intelligence. Here must 
flourish unsurpassed colleges of that science of which the blessed skill 
removes disease, or charms away its pains. Here we must have schools 
of jurisprudence to teach it as a science, resting on immutable princi- 
ples of justice, to interpret international and constitutional law on a sys- 
tem that shall be at once cosmopolitan and national, breathing union 
among ourselves and good will to all the peoples of the earth. Here 
where the crowded streets show the most of that favored being who 
alone was created in the image of his Maker, the truths that lift man 
above the vicissitudes of time, and connect him with things that are 
eternal, must shine out in their purest lustre. Here divine art must 
make visible to t,he senses the forms of beauty that repose in the ciiipa.- 
cious recesses of creative genius. Here universities must gather together 
all the fountains of truth and send the living waters through the laud. 
Let the comprehensive and liberal spirit of our merchants and the 
vivifying intelligence of scholars join together to promote the fullest 
development of every capacity for good. This edifice is an earnest of 
that co-operation. 

President King, of Columbia College, then addressed the 
President as follows : 

REMARKS OF PRESIDENT KING. 

Mr. President: The scene presented here this evening carries me 
back to other days — I may say to other generations; and looking round 
upon the few scattered ancients, ray contemporaries, among the large 
assemblage of younger men, the active, stirring men of this active, stir- 
ring age, it may be said, almost without a figure, that posterity is here 
to welcome and to encourage the early friends of the Historical Society 
who yet survive to witness, and take part in, this joyous and most 
gratifying inauguration of a building not unworthy of the treasures it is 
to contain, and which it is to secure against the danger irreparable for 
such a library and collection as ours — of fire. 

I thank you, J\Ir. President, and the gentlemen of the Committee of 
Invitation, for giving me this opportunity of being present at such a 
festival, and taking a part, however humble, in its proceedings. 

Born in the city of NewYork, I have always felt the full force of the 
exalting claim of the Apostle of the Gentiles, that he was " a citizen of 
no mean city ;" and whatever tends to promote the honor or add to 



19 

the illustrious annals of the city or State, enlists my earnest sympathy 
and co-operation. 

And in illustrious annals there is no State in our wide Union that 
surpasses New York, and not one that with so much to say, has said 
so little in her own behalf. 

But there are laid up here, sir, and will, I would fain hope, continue 
to be laid up, treasures of private letters, diaries, and memoirs, which 
together with the printed materials accessible to all, will furnish au- 
thentic matter for that history of New York which is yet to be written. 

AVe need at this day, especially, to popularize the study of our his- 
tory, and especially of our own history ; for, diligently and honestly 
pursued, it is the essential study among a people where all are called 
to take a part in public aftairs, to make either the laws or those who do 
make them. In this study they will perceive that however oppression 
and wrong may for a time prosper, the Nemesis of History follows 
close upon the guilty career, and brands with indelible infamy the bold, 
bad man, who would "owe his greatness to his country's ruin." 

Men, indeed, of the school of Sir Robert Walpole, whose whole 
statecraft consists in the one sordid maxim — false as it is sordid — 
" every man has his price," may sneer at history as a tissue of lies, and 
seek to throw doubt upon all acts and all motives that cannot be 
traced to the unscrupulous theory of their statesmanship ; but the me- 
morials which such a Society as ours gathers, preserves, and finally pub- 
lishes, refute this degrading hypothesis — memorials of private letters 
never designed for the light, and of conversations held in the intimacy 
and privacy of home, revealing the heart of the speaker or writer, letters 
and memoirs such as constitute the matchless collection which Sparks 
has jriven us of our great Washington. IIow few the men that ever 
lived who, acting on so great a theatre, could stand the ordeal of such 
an honest publication. Yet who that has ever read these letters but 
feels that, however exalted before may have been his admiration of 
Washington, it is enhanced by these volumes. 

So, too, we have already manuscript treasures inedited, and having 
now a repository safe from the destroying fire, and placed beyond the 
possibility of what once was a scarcely less threatening danger — the 
sheriff's hammer — we may reasonably calculate to have many more 
precious family papers, records, and memorials confided to us, which 
though they may not illustrate such names as Washington or Jay, rarely, 
and only at long intervals vouchsafed to any nation, shall yet teach the 
coming ao-es that God, and therefore Truth, is in History, and Virtue and 



20 

Patriotism in public men. It is a great trust to be the depository of 
such materials ; what we see before us is the sure warrant that the trust 
is well reposed, and will be faithfully fulfilled. 

Rev. Dr. William Adams, being called upon, responded 
as follows : 

EKMAPvKS OF EEV. DOCTOR ADAMS. 

I am somewhat startled, Mr. President, at the formality of your call, 
at this stage of the proceedings, since I liad entered the hall with the 
expectation of being a listener, rather than a speaker. I had, indeed, 
passed my word that I would be present, and that if the occasion should 
require, I would say a word, by meeting any necessity of the case ; but 
I must confess that the bait which lured me into this hall was the ex- 
pectation of listening to the distinguished speakers of the evening, espe- 
cially the promise of hearing Mr. Irving, and Mr. Verplanck, the origi- 
nal founders of this Society. 

The researches of the antiquary and the labors of the historian have 
always, with minds of a certain order, been the theme of satire. Even 
such a man as Dr. Johnson confessed to no patience with history. 
He would not even read the elaborate works of Hume and Robertson ; 
and on one occasion lie positively forbade Mr. Bosw^ell ever to men- 
tion in his presence again the Punic War. He ridiculed Beauclerc, 
and other members of the Kit-Cat Club, for what they reported as hav- 
ing seen in foreign travel. Yet the mind of Dr. Johnson was precisely 
of that order which would have been benefited by the more copious in- 
duction of facts derived from history and travel. How different was it 
with Dr. Paley, who, with his bob-wig and round hat, was the very 
impersonation of bonhommie, — who requested a friend, when going upon 
foreign travel, to bring back, he cared not how common a thing, " if it 
was nothing but an old shoe, or an old smock," which would illustrate 
the manners and condition of a people. 

After all that we say of tlie dignity of history, it is the small, the 
common, and the humble, which give us a correct idea of existing 
society. No better illustration of this can be afforded than the letters 
of Dr. Johnson to Mrs. Thrale. In his letters from the Hebrides, 
we have a perfect picture of the manners of that isolated people. We 
see the very things that they eat, their dirty habits, the comfortless 
apartments in which they slept ; and it seems now to have gleamed 
upon the mind of that old man himself, that it might have been better 
for him if, at an earlier period of his life, he had not been so restricted 



21 

to the habits of Englishmen, and that he had himself given more atten- 
tion to history and foreign travel. 

A little incident like the advertisement in a paper, than which no- 
thing can be more common or insignificant, may give to us a correct 
illustration of the state of society. In our own archives there is a file of 
the Boston News-Letter, the oldest newspaper published upon this conti- 
nent. Cast your eye over its pages, and you will be convinced that 
that smutty chronicle is the index of the greatest revolutions of Provi- 
dence. On the 13th of November, 1732, you find an advertisement 
which reads as follows : 

" This day, at 4 o'clock, will be sold at public vendue, at the Sun Tav- 
ern, a parcel of red and blue muslins, perpets, and threads, for the Guinea 
Trade. Also, three or four very likely negroes, just arrived. All to be 
seen at the place of sale." 

The African slave trade in the city of Boston, & little more than 
one century ago ! A good thing would it be for us to be more familiar 
with these historic facts, that we may sprinkle our fervor with a little 
cool patience. Shem, Ham, and Japhet, instead of pelting one another 
with mutual recriminations, would do well to consult those earlier facts 
of history, and, with forbearance and sympathy, cast the mantle of char- 
ity over the nakedness of our common ancestors. 

Ask any intelligent traveller, returning from the Old to the New 
World, Avhat are those objects which have awakened in his mind the 
greatest interest, and he will inform you, not always those things which 
are regarded great and noble in the judgment of common men, so much 
as those things, often simple, humble, and insignificant in themselves, 
Avhich stand related to the great discoveries of science, the great achieve- 
ments of liberty, and the general progress of the human race; not al- 
ways those stupendous piles of architecture, whose grandeur and deco- 
rations have exhausted the wealth of centuries; not always the sceptres 
and crowns and regalia of kings, which have been worn often by men 
and women whom no gold or gems could adorn ; not so much the abbeys 
and cathedrals, in whose long and solemn aisles repose the ashes of the 
mio"hty dead — the few good among the many bad. He will tell you 
of such things as the cottage near the city of Genoa, the birth-place 
of Christopher Columbus, on the front of which is inscribed these 

words : 

"Uuus erat muudus ; duo sint, ait iste: — fuere." 

" There was one world — there may be two," said he. It is the house 
of Galileo, at Florence, containing his scientific implements, and 



22 

among them tliat little Dutch telescope, with which this great " Colum- 
bus of the Heavens," as he has been called, made his first researches in 
the firmament. It is the little lamp which still hangs in the Cathedral 
at Pisa, the oscillation of which first put in motion the mind of that 
great philosopher concerning the laws of the pendulum and the meas- 
urement of time. It is the pulpit of John Knox, in the Antiquary's 
Hall at Edinburgh, — plain, stout, and oaken, — in which that noble re- 
former thundered out his denunciations against religious despotism ; and 
by the side of it, the stool which Jennie Geddes fiung at the head of 
the Dean of Edinboro', when, lending himself a tool to royal oppres- 
sion, he dared to curtail the liberty of worship in God's people — a sin- 
gular projectile, but the signal shot of a great revolutioQ ! It is that 
little bit of plaster in one of the cells of the Tower of London, which you 
cannot read but with a suffused eye, on which are scratched, as with a 
nail, by some noble martyr for the truth, these verses of scripture : 

" Be thou ftiitliful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. 
Fle that continueth unto the end, the same shall be saved." 

It is the little Latin Bible belonging to Martin Luther inscribed all 
over with marginal notes, in the handwriting of that great Reformer, 
brought by Gustavus Vasa, and now in the Royal Museum of Stock- 
holm, the lever by which in his own lifetime that stalwart hero prised up 
fifty millions of people to light and liberty. 

Those are the things which are truly great, though small in them- 
selves, because they are associated in every mind with the progress of 
the human race in knowledge and in freedom. 

If there be importance attached to such objects in foreign lands, how 
much more important are similar objects in our own. A collection of 
newspapers, of pamphlets, orations, sermons, may be regarded in them- 
selves as entirely valueless ; but they serve to preserve to us a perfect 
picture of times that are past, more faithful often than the largest folios. 

We have all been under the impression that injustice has been done 
to many of the events and personages of American history, through 
the prejudice of foreign historians. No better illustration can we have 
than the different feelings which prevail in regard to two distinguished 
parties who figured during the American Revolution upon opposite sides 
of that great contest — Major Andr6 of the British army, and Captain 
Hale, of our own. What man, woman, or child that ever read the 
touching fate of Andre, who has not been moved to a genial sympathy ? 
Gallant, educated, accomplished, he met the fate of a soldier, amid the 
tears of those who executed him. Uow few are acquainted with the 



23 

history and the fate of Capt. Hale ! EJacated at Yale College, accom- 
plished ill person and manners, high in the confidence of his military 
superiors, ho volunteered to accomplish a nobler service than his 
British contemporary, and met his fate with a nobler self-possession and 
courage. Requesting writing materials on the morning of his execution, 
that he might address a farewell line to his mother and sisters, he was 
denied that facilit}^ by the provost of the British army, who said that he 
"did not intend the rebels should ever know that they had so brave a 
man in their body ;" and when he saw the fetal gallosvs erected, here in 
Chambers-street of our own city, instead of flinching, he said his only 
regret was that he had not more than one life to lay down for the good 
of his country. Yet no Metropolitan monument is reared to his honor 
on the spot where he fell, though the remains of Andre sleep beneath 
sculptured marble in Westminster Abbey. 

It is a pious duty devolving upon us, to render justice to the deeds 
of our fathers. Let us dig up their statues from the sand and rubbish 
where they have fallen, and place them upon their proper pedestals : 
Hamilton in AVall street ; the incorruptible Jay in our City Hall; all 
the civil and military heroes of our annals : let us study their calm and 
serious features, and copy whatever was noble or good in their example. 

However it may be with other people, we are the last who can af- 
ford to forego the advantage of antiquarian and historical research. It 
was a remark made by Dr. Chalmers : — " One thing I should not like 
in America : I should not like your raw and recent population. I love 
to feel, when I am walking here in Edinboro', that I am treading on 
the same stanes with my ancestors." 

In breaking away from the old world, tearing ourselves from the 
old universities, from those ancient parks, 

" With their sylvan honors of feudal bark," 

with all that has been consecrated by the lapse of time — we are in 
danger of losing our reverence for that wdiich is old, and attaching 
ourselves exclusively to that which is new. Ours, indeed, is not a re- 
cent history, INIost cordially do I sympathize with the remark made by 
the accomplished historian and orator (Mr. Bancroft), who ha> preceded 
me, that we have an indefeasible claim in all of ]3ritish life and his- 
tory. We have not lost our pedigree by being translated across the sea. 
There is no bend of illegitimacy in our national escutcheon. The fame 
of jMilton and Spenser and Shakspeare belongs to us as much as to any 



24 

Englishman. They who still retain possession of (he ancestral isle have no 
prescriptive claim to those crown jewels of English literature. Their blood 
is our own. Nevertheless, we do well to guard ourselves against those 
influences that might aftect us, from familiarity with that which is recent 
and novel. Let us reverently regard whatever is old, and fixed, and 
stable. Let us not swing loose from the anchorage of historic associ- 
ation. Rather let us cultivate that wisdom which, forming an accurate 
judgment of the past, and a correct lioroscope of the present, shall fore- 
cast those noble anticipations of the future which are nurtured alike by 
our history and our religious faith. 

Rev. George W. Bethune, D. D., also addressed the So- 
ciety, and the Report of the Trustees was accepted. 

Benjamin Robert Winthrop, Esq., then, at the request 
of the President, read the letter accompanying his donation 
to the Society of the " Washington Chair," which was accept- 
ed, with the thanks of the Society. 

The President announced that the Fifty-Third Anniver- 
sary of the Society would be celebrated at the Library, on 
Tuesday evening, November 17th, when the Address would 
be delivered by John W. Francis, M. D., LL. D. 

The President also announced that the Library and Gal- 
leries would be open for the reception of the families of mem- 
bers on the following evening, Wednesday, November 4th. 

The benediction was then pronounced by Rev. Peter S. 
Van Pelt, D. D. 



On Wednesday evening, November 4th, pursuant to the 
announcement of the President, there was a very large at- 
tendance of members accompanied by their families at the 
Library. About 9 o'clock, the company having assembled 
in the Lecture Room, the President took the chair, and intro- 
duced the Rev. Dr. Osgood, who addressed them as follows : 

KEMARKS OF DR. OSGOOD ON TOE DOMESTIC ASPECTS OF IIISTOUY. 

Dr. Osgood, on being introduced by the President, remarked, that 
the assembly met now to complete the last evening's dedication, and 



25 

that the Society came now with their families to say Amen to the con- 
secrating prayer, and to take possession of this new literary home. The 
present occasion seemed to him to be peculiarly of a domestic charac- 
ter ; and his words would aim to illustrate the worth of History as a 
record of Humanity, in its affections as well as its politics, and in its 
relations to woman as well as to man. He was not sorry to address 
an audience so richly representing the true humanity ; and he did not 
consider an audience of men alone to he wholly human ; and perhaps 
he might presume to say that an audience of women alone was no 
much nearer the complete humanity which God created in his own im- 
age, when " male and female created he them." 

He then invited the ladies and gentlemen present to survey with 
him the various apartments of the edifice, in a passing review, and 
to interpret the building itself as the symbol of the historical creed of 
the Society. 

I. Begin with the Refectory, and interpret it as a symbol of social- 
ity in its literary relations. The table surely has an historical signifi- 
cance ; and it needed no great antiquarian learning to prove that eating 
and drinking were very ancient institutions, and were likely to survive 
the wreck of empires, and the changes of fashions. With the progress 
of civilization, the table rises in dignity ; and the natural appetite, to 
which it appeals, is refined and exalted by the intellectual and social 
tastes that are concentrated and nurtured by its cheerful plenty. The 
Kefectory is in the basement of our edifice ; and its position teaches the 
fact that agriculture, with its daily bread, is the material basis of human 
welfare, and that our bread is twice blessed when partaken in generous 
fellowship. Our bread is never truly blessed unless womanly grace 
smiles upon it ; and here to-night, with our wives, daughters, and 
friends, we accept the Refectory as the symbol of our sociality. 

II. Ascend a story of the edifice, and we enter this spacious and 
convenient Lecture Room, which marks the intention of the Society to 
be an instrument of popular education. Here history is to be pre- 
sented, not as the interest of a few antiquarian scholars, as dry as the 
dust on their folios, but as the interest of our common humanity, as a 
study for all rational creatures, for youth and age, scholar and mer- 
chant, for woman and for man. Here our monthly meetings are to 
be held, and our regular historical papers are to be read. It might, 
perhaps, be expected that the more various, and especially the feminine 
elements in the audience, w^ould act favorably upon the manner and 
matter of the speaking and reading ; and that bright eyes, with their 



26 

quick intuition, would drive all dulness from the rostrum, as sunsliine 
drives away the clouds. But it must be understood that order was to 
be preserved, without respect of persons ; and that our President, who 
could shine in parlors as well as Senates, was quite as much master of 
the art of winning gentle volatility to sobriety by his bland dignity, as 
of subduing unruly men to order by his manly authority. In all sober- 
ness, it is to be hoped that this hall of audience will be one of the edu- 
cational institutions of the cit}'. 

III. The Library is our symbol of history, as literature, and of litera- 
ture, in all its compass, as the record of the affections as well as of the 
understanding. History has been too often poorly interpreted into a 
register of dates, upon a tomb of relics of the dead. It should be re- 
garded as the record of human life in all its compass ; and our new 
library, with its admirable arrangements, and large hospitality, fitly ex- 
presses this idea. It is well that the Library is open to woman as well 
as to man ; and this fixct will tend to give a truer expression to our his- 
torical treasures, and show, ere long, what dry antiquarians have too 
often forgotten, that there is a line of white ribbon as well as of red 
tape running through the looms of time. We have, on our front wall, 
the head of Herodotus, the father of history. Where is the mother of 
history, or is there none ? Who is that fair head over our vestibule, the 
lovely woman with a star for her diadem ? Is it a type of our America 
with her vesper star, or is it Memor\^ with her twilight retrospections, 
or is it the ideal Mother of History, of whom every true womanly soul 
is the loyal daughter, even as the nine muses of old were daughters of 
Mnemosyne ? 

IV. The Picture Gallery crowns the edifice, and presents the beautiful 
arts as the flower of human civilization. Why wonder at the arrange- 
ment? Why speak as if the beautiful were the lying paint on the 
cheek of meretricious Folly, instead of the healthful bloom on the face 
of Truth, that fair daughter of the Eternal Mind ? Art, too, like litera- 
ture, is rooted in the affections, and has its domestic side and its femi- 
nine inspirations. If few women are comparatively artists, and no woman 
has ever given a masterpiece of the first class to sculpture or painting, 
or to music, or eloquence, or poetry, the balance is made up, and more 
too, by the fact that the masterpieces of men have, for the most part, 
been inspired by women, and that, as with Dante, so with most great 
artists, woman is man's Beatrice, the genius of his inspirations. 

Mention was here made of the worth of the beautiful arts to human 
welfare ; and it was said that as the French naturalist, Adanson, asked 



27 

in Lis will tbat a wreath made of the fifty-eight classes of plants which 
he had established by his own researches might be laid upon his cofini ; 
so we have laid upon this, not tomb, but temple of history, a garland of 
flowers of art, whose enlivening and healing grace shall be the blessing 
of generations to come. Cole's Course of Empire was spoken of, and 
the artist was called the Edmund Spenser of American art. 

The address, which was nearly an hour long, and is here presented 
only in outline, closed with some reference to the fitness of the season 
for the opening of this edifice. At this time of commercial depression, 
it was good for us to think of the old times of trial, and strengthen our 
too eft'eminate manners by a little of the ancient manliness under 
misfortune. Read the year 'o7 backwards, and it is '75, and speaks 
to us of the school of Revolutionary heroes. In this dark time, we light 
up this beautiful hall of history, and in the cheering ray we brighten 
all solemn remembrances with the radiance of cheerful and progres- 
sive hopes. 

After some remarks by Gen. Prosper M. Wetmore, the 
company retired. 



/(.X.^!-^^- 'V 



2^^ 



